-Frontline Maharashtra’s sugarcane farmers are a worried lot as the State government backs out from the sugar pricing process.  Sangli & Kolhapur: KOLHAPUR and Sangli districts in Maharashtra form the heartland of Indian sugar industry. This time of year is generally the busiest, with itinerant labourers cutting sugarcane and loading it on to tractors that roar off to the more than 20 sugar factories in the two districts. In November and December,...

-The Hindu DHARWAD: Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, R.R. Hanchinal said the research conducted by scientists from the university had proved that organic farming ensured more productivity than chemical farming in rain-fed areas. Presiding over the inaugural session of the two-day State-level workshop on ‘Plant protection in organic farming’ on the university campus here on Tuesday, Prof. Hanchinal said the outcome of a recent comparative study on organic...

-PTI Delhi may soon become the first city in the country to have global retail chains like Walmart and Tesco, with the city government all set bring a bill in the Winter session of assembly beginning on Tuesday to remove hurdles in ensuring "effective" implementation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. The city government will bring an amendment to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act for facilitating direct purchase...

-The New Indian Express Bhubaneswar: The Assembly on Tuesday passed the Odisha Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation of Land (Amendment) Bill, 2012, with members of both Treasury and Opposition benches making a strong plea to the Government to ensure that Agricultural Land is not used for non-agricultural purposes. “The amendment of the Odisha Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation of Land Act, 1972, will pave the way for fragmentation...

-Down to Earth An ecologist has been guarding seeds of more than 750 rare rice varieties for over a decade Lit by a kerosene lamp, the two-room hut just outside a sleepy hamlet in Odisha’s Rayagada district can easily pass off as any other farmer’s house in this tribal region. Step inside it, and one is taken aback by the hundreds of earthen pots labelled with coded stickers stacked in a corner...