Punjab-based farmers, who are known for feeding the country, now want to try their hands offshore, with a group of progressive farmers all set to acquire 50,000 hectares of farm land on lease in Ethiopia for growing high-value cash crops, including pulses and maize. "We will be inking a deal with the Ethiopia government next month for getting at least 50,000 hectares of area for growing crops like pulses and...
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Ethiopia beckons Punjabi farmers by Amarjit Thind
Acknowledging the expertise of Punjabi farmers in making the state the “food bowl of the country”, Ethiopia now wants them to replicate this success in their country. Only 43 per cent of the total land mass of the country was currently under cultivation and the African country has invited farmers to lease huge tracts of arable land in various parts of the country and turn them into green lush fields....
More »Buoyant Pepsi to take contract farming to troubled states by Seema Sindhu
Ram Prasad Ghosal, a potato farmer from Bamunpara (Dist Burdwan) in West Bengal, owns 10 acres of land. Just two months earlier, though, his ilk faced a major scare. The region witnessed a bumper potato crop of 9.5 million tonnes — 73 per cent higher than last year’s production. Wholesale prices in Kolkata crashed to Rs 300 a quintal. Retail prices, too, dropped to Rs 6-8 a kg. Farmers were...
More »A potato remade for industry has some Swedes frowning by John Tagliabue
Amflora is a kind of miracle potato: it is precious to the starch industry. Johan Bergstrom, a blond and boyish man of 31, who farms here with his father, reached into the dark, soft soil and extricated a tennis-ball-size potato, holding it gently so as not to snap off any of a half-dozen white shoots that were growing out of the potato's eyes. He advised against tasting the potato, whose...
More »Small organic farmer groups aim big by Hemlata Verma
Kinnauri rajmash, chilgoza (pinus gerardiana), walnut and dried apricots have always been in high demand and commanded a competitive price in the market, but connecting them with the concept of organic food has yielded high premiums for farmers in the state. Himalayan Organisation for Organic Agri Products (HIMOARD), based at Rampur in Shimla, has brought international recognition for these farm products of the tribal district of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh....
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