-Orissapost.com Cuttack: In a bid to ensure transparency in paddy procurement, the state government is mulling introduction of iris recognition for farmers while selling the harvest at paddy procurement centres. According to sources, all paddy procurement centres (mandis) will be provided with iris scanners by the beginning of this kharif procurement season. “Farmers will be enrolled for the iris-scanning wherein the central server will store pictures of their unique iris. A farmer visiting...

-The Hindu Business Line Retail prices of onion, which had softened a bit last month, have rebounded over the past few days on continued supply disruption, touching the Rs.100 per kg mark in pockets of consuming centres such as New Delhi and Chennai. The bulb could bring more tears to consumers in the days ahead, trade sources said, as the prices are likely to hit new highs with the crop sown in...

-The Hindu Business Line The maximum crop damage was reported from Western Madhya Pradesh, which received 61 per cent surplus rains. Excess monsoon rains and the floods caused by them affected crops in many States, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab, according to a kharif crop damage report released by private weather forecaster Skymet on Tuesday.   While 40 to 50 per cent of soyabean crop has been hit in Madhya...

-Livemint.com Since state administrations failed to contain the noxious smoke of farmland stubble fires in north India, the Supreme Court has had to order a crackdown. Here’s what else we could do There was hope for the residents of a broad expanse of north India, who faced a public health emergency due to air pollution, a significant part of which was caused by smoke arising from the burning of crop stubble—stalks of...

Sporadic natural events like floods and droughts have made headlines in recent times. An official report, which was released in April this year, among other things, shows that extreme weather events have taken a huge toll on both human and cattle lives, personal property and crops grown by farmers and farm workers. A chapter on extreme weather events and natural disasters in the report entitled EnviStats India 2019, Vol. I: Environment...