-The Hindu   Nabard's low-key financing scheme helps farmers reap a rich Harvest Puducherry: A low-key financing scheme with a few innovations thrown in is driving big changes in the lives of several rural dairy farmers. One of the beneficiaries, Poongudi from Andayarpalayam, Thirubuvanai, is a happy woman. Her milch cows are healthier and milk production has improved in quantity and quality. "The cows do not fall ill often now. I have 10 cows and the...

-The Hindu   Lucrative subsidy available under National Horticulture Mission Tamil Nadu: Small and marginal farmers, hitherto cultivating vegetables under conventional method, have slowly started shifting to shade-net technique for higher yields with premium price, thanks to the lucrative subsidy available under National Horticulture Mission (NHM). To achieve the goal of reducing yield gaps in important crops like vegetables and flowers through focused interventions like protected cultivation, and to maximize the returns to the...

-The Diplomat   Climate change is stressing an already struggling farm sector, but there is a way forward. Over the last decade, India's official position in global climate negotiations has been one of opposition to agricultural mitigation. At Doha (COP18), India joined other developing countries in demanding that any talk about agriculture must be in the realm of adaptation, not mitigation. India considers the farm sector out of bounds with respect to emissions...

-The Hindu   State procured paddy in March, was to pay Upper Kuttanad farmers in 10 days Kerala: Paddy cultivators in the Upper Kuttanad belt are reportedly faced with serious financial crisis due to the government's failure to disburse the price of the paddy procured from them. The paddy Harvest in this part of the State began in the first week of March. Though the government had started procuring threshed paddy from the peasants...

-Grist Media   The people of the Thar desert have their ways. This story unfolds over a year and recounts history through contemporary lives lived gently and with the land. It experiences first-hand the extraordinary old magic of growing lush crops in the desert. The land was the color of burnt caramel. It was flat and it was featureless: there was no tree in sight, no blade of grass, no ditch, no dune,...