Sivadasan's five-acre farm used to be a solitary patch in Kerala's Palakkad district, with bitter gourd, cucumber, cow peas and lady's finger growing amid a landscape dotted with Paddy fields and plantations of rubber and spices.  Just five years later, more than 1.45 lakh farmers in the southern state have joined Sivadasan and started growing vegetables, reflecting a palpable shift sweeping across the Indian countryside.  "Vegetables are always more profitable than Paddy,"...

-PTI   More than 114.91 lakh tonnes of Paddy has been procured by government agencies and private millers in Punjab during the ongoing kharif season till last evening, as against 120.81 lakh tonnes during the corresponding period of the previous year. An official spokesman here today said that out of the total procurement of 114.91 lakh tonnes of Paddy, government agencies have procured 110.93 lakh tonnes (96.5 per cent) and private traders have...

-Live Mint   In an unprecedented move, farmers in East Godavari and adjoining districts of Andhra Pradesh declared a crop holiday last season, refusing to cultivate Paddy in this fully irrigated region of the state. Farmers say the reason for this drastic step is that cultivating Paddy has become unremunerative and they are left with no other choice. The agrarian crisis and its neglect by successive governments are responsible for the low...

Jharkhand has produced more rice than it needs this season, thanks to the monsoon bounty after three consecutive years of drought, enabling the state to set up procurement centres in all 24 districts for the first time. Till now dependent on Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh for its annual requirement of around 20 lakh tonne of par boiled, or usna, rice, Jharkhand is likely to log a bumper harvest of 35-37...

-PTI   Farmers may get up to Rs 2,250 per quintal of their common basmati Paddy this season, according to experts. The forecast was made by scientists of the Agricultural Economics Department of GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, a university release said. The scientists made the forecast while working on a sub-project, 'Establishing and Networking of Market Intelligence Centres in India', of the National Agriculture Innovation Project. One of the objectives of...