-IANS Leh: For Tsetan Punchok, a 50-something farmer from the distant village of Partapur in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, life was difficult in the 3,000-metre highlands where summer lasts barely four months and for long, he could only grow potatoes and turnips. His life, however, changed in the last few years when he came in touch with scientists of the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR). DIHAR, a laboratory of premier...

-Capital Market 14 Crore Soil Health Cards to be Issued in Three Years; Credit Support of Rs. 8 Lakh Crore to Agriculture During 2014-15 Targeted "Finance to 5 lakh joint farming groups of Bhoomi Heen Kisan through NABARD in the current financial year", said Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Agriculture Minister, while inaugurating the National Rabi Conference. Minister said that, a very large number of landless farmers are unable to provide land title...

-Niti Central India's western State Gujarat does not have a fertile land and most of its landscape is arid, even then the State has taken a big leap in agriculture sector by maintaining nearly 9 per cent of agricultural growth rate for nearly last one decade. Gujarat has written a success story despite being faced with challenges like depletion of water table, deterioration of soil and water conditions due to salinity...

-Women's Feature Service Tribal families in Bankura, West Bengal, living on a stable diet of potato and rice and occasionally some 'daal' (lentils), are now consuming a variety of vegetables, cereals, fruits and animal protein with relish on a daily basis, marking a sea change in the nutrition parametres in one of the most backward districts of India. The credit for this dramatic transformation goes to the dry land sustainable integrated farming...

-The Financial Express Though food inflation could be lower than last year's 11.1%, fruit and vegetable prices remain the pressure points. Concerns over monsoon have diminished a lot in recent weeks because of four positive developments. First, rainfall deficiency has reduced sharply from a century-high of 45% for June to 17% as on August 18. Second, sowing has caught up significantly from 40% below normal in mid-July to just 2.3% below normal...