-The Hindu Gulbarga (Karnataka): Organic farming is catching up with farmers both in the irrigated and rain-fed areas in Gulbarga district. The improved agricultural practice of mixed crop cultivation, avoiding the use of the chemical fertilisers and pesticides, is a hit among the farmers in the district. Joint Director of the Agriculture Department Mohammad Jilani Mokashi told a group of presspersons visiting some of the agriculture plots, where individual farmers have adopted...

-The New Minute We can wash and clean our vegetables plenty of times but that's not the right solution. The solution lies in our regulatory system. Pesticides are everywhere - whether it is their use in our farms or their prevalence in our plates. We have somehow convinced ourselves or have been convinced that if we set certain regulatory standards we can conveniently forget about the negative impacts of pesticides and continue...

-The Hindu Business Line Ahmedabad: As nearly 40,000 citizens signed a petition asking tea companies to clean up chai, The Wagh Bakri Group, India's third largest tea packager, on Thursday said it would support Greenpeace's attempts to eliminate pesticides from tea cultivation in the country. Wagh Bakri has engaged with Greenpeace India whose report "Trouble Brewing" and highlighted pesticide residue in tea samples recently. Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Girnar Tea have already announced...

-The Hindu Kochi (Kerala): The State Horticulture Mission (SHM) is planning to implement organic farming and certification in 2,000 hectares in the State. The programme is to be implemented initially in the three districts of Idukki, Wayanad and Kasaragod during 2014-15, under the guidance of the National Horticulture Mission (NHM). Under the programme, financial assistance will be provided over a period of three years for groups of farmers covering an area of...

-The Hindu Thiruvananthapuram: Farmers in Kerala can look forward to reducing their dependence on toxic chemicals for pest control. The Department of Agriculture has tied up with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, to introduce pheromone traps in the State. The technology uses the sex pheromones of a particular pest against itself. Pheromones are hormones released by insects and pests to attract the opposite sex for mating. The IICT has developed...