-Livemint.com All our solutions in agriculture, besides management issues, are going to come from science and technology, says Deepak Pental, innovator of GM mustard Last week, the environment ministry’s regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), cleared the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard, leaving it to the government to take a final call. If approved, it will be India’s first food crop developed using transgenic technology, 15 years after Bt...

-TheWire.in The Modi government has struggled to achieve success on crucial development fronts such as farmer incomes and job creation. Public memory in India is amnesic. Still, it is difficult to forget that Narendra Modi rode to power in 2014 on the plank of promoting development, aptly captured by ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. This is not a novel idea in itself as others too have tried to win over voters adopting similar...

-The Indian Express The total Agricultural land has also dipped by 1.18 per cent to 1.97 crore hectares of land. Mumbai: Even as clamour for farm loan waiver grows to afford temporary relief to farmers amid volatility in commodity prices and poor returns from farm produce, the state is facing a problem of increased fragmentation of Agricultural land. Smaller plots not just bring down Agricultural productivity, but also affects farmers’ economies...

-Livemint.com While one estimate pegged Maharashtra’s tur production at 1.17 million tonnes, another forecast a record yield of 2.35 million tonnes Mumbai: Maharashtra’s economic survey of 2016-17, which came out on 17 March, pegged the state’s total tur (pigeon pea) yield at 1.17 million tonnes, based on estimates of the Pune-based agriculture commissionerate. A fortnight later, the state’s agriculture department put out revised estimates showing the March projection of tur yield...

-The Hindu ‘India exporting rice worth Rs. 40,000 crore annually due to scientific application’ BHUBANESWAR: India is exporting rice worth Rs. 40,000 crore annually and other food products despite facing massive adverse impact of climate change, said Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary in the Department of Agriculture Research and Education. Mr. Mohapatra, also the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said the massive upswing in food production was possible due to application...