-The New Indian Express CHENNAI: Taking out a sharp attack on the anti-GM environmental activists, Professor Dr Shanthu Shantharam of the Iowa State University's Seed Science Centre said that the decision on the usage of GM crops should be left to farmers and not to environmental activists. He was speaking at a seminar on ‘GM Technology - Myth and Reality' organised by the Industrial Economist magazine on Saturday at the CLRI. "Let...

-Deccan Chronicle On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion scheme that will ensure that at least one member of each and every family in India not only has a bank account with a debit card, but is also provided an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000, a life insurance policy of Rs 30,000 and accident insurance cover of Rs 1,00,000. On August...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: Shortage of seeds, high prices set by dealers and middle men, lack of enough quantity of seeds, and lack of money - are all factors that contribute to lack of seeds, which means lack of crop for thousands of farmers across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In an attempt to better this situation, Rythu Bandhu magazine, Hyderabad-based Telugu magazine that works for the empowerment of farmers, in...

-The Business Standard Four sub missions have been merged into one scheme - agri extension, seed and planting material, agri mechanisation and plant protection and plant quarantine   Mumbai: The ministry of agriculture has introduced an umbrella scheme to augment agricultural extension and technology activities with the objective of improving the supply of the agricultural commodities from the grass root level. According to official sources, the impetus on agricultural extension has to go hand...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: If the unimpressive spell of southwest monsoon across the state continues, the government, which seems proactively making a sustainable crop choice for cultivation by having declared a soil survey, might well want to work towards revival of droughtresistant crop sorghum, which once used to be one of the largest cultivated dryland crops in the region, feel scientists at the Directorate of Sorghum Research. DSR, a central...