-Livemint.com With barely a few months to go for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the question across political party lines is: what can really be done now, and quickly? New Delhi: When residents gather around the fire on foggy winter evenings in Rampura, a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, the conversation often veers toward the declining fortunes in agriculture. Take 27-year-old Pushpendra Singh, who completed his master’s degree in commerce in 2016,...

-The Hindu Hundreds of species of pollinators may be in dangerous decline Across India’s agrarian plains, plantations and Orchards, millions of birds, bats and insects toil to pollinate crops. However, many of these thousands of species may be in dangerous decline. In 2015, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that pollinators lead to huge agricultural economic gains. The report estimated pollinator contribution in India to be $0.831-1.5 billion...

-PTI New Delhi: The West Bengal government is pushing for a GI tag for the Kohitur mango, arguably the most prized variety among the king of fruits that was ‘created’ during the reign of nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah strictly for royals only and now sells for up to Rs 1,500 a piece. The precious mango, so delicate that each piece has to be carefully plucked by hand and swathed in cotton, was developed in...

-Hindustan Times The Rs 7,000-crore sector in Himalayan states reels under high temperature, low rainfall The drought-like situation prevailing in the northwest Himalayas may spell bad news for the Rs 7,000-crore apple economy that sustains people residing in the upper regions of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. This winter has been one of the warmest in the last decade, weather department officials said. Apple Orchards usually need 500 to 1,000 chilling hours (with temperatures ranging...

-Hindustan Times Fruit growers in Uttarakhand get hardly any yield from their Orchards because they mostly get to grow imported plants that are not checked for viruses and diseases in absence of hi-tech scientific facilities in the state and a dedicated law Fruit growers in Uttarakhand get hardly any yield from their Orchards because they mostly get to grow imported plants that are not checked for viruses and diseases in absence of...