The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revised upwards the cotton production estimates for India in 2010-11 crop year by one million bales to 26 million bales, on account of higher area and expectation of better yield. “India’s 2010-11 cotton production is forecast at 26 million bales, weighing 480 pounds each, up 4 per cent from last month, and up by 2.5 million or 11 per cent from last year,” USDA...

Despite growing threat to food security from global warming, India is busy acq-uiring fertile lands for industries and infrastructure. Something terrible is happening to the weather. And it is happening right across our home. From the cold desert of Ladakh to the plains of Bihar and Jharkhand, extreme weather conditions have played havoc. In neighbouring Pakistan, unprecedented floods, and that too in the arid region of Sindh, have hit more than...

Despite growing threat to food security from global warming, India is busy acq-uiring fertile lands for industries and infrastructure. Something terrible is happening to the weather. And it is happening right across our home. From the cold desert of Ladakh to the plains of Bihar and Jharkhand, extreme weather conditions have played havoc. In neighbouring Pakistan, unprecedented floods, and that too in the arid region of Sindh, have hit more than...

Some good news awaits the agriculture sector in Bihar. Around 150 potential investors from all over the country met in Patna today, with an aim to invest in the untapped food-processing sector in state. The motive behind the summit was to plan investments in the food-processing sector by boosting the market and database intelligence system. Enhancing crop productivity to ensure availability of the raw material required for the industry and promotion...

What are the poor most concerned about? After meeting families in 175 Indian villages in the last decade, Anirudh Krishna, says the poor's greatest worry is their children's future. With a manner of a school teacher, Professor Krishna, who teaches at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the US, has led a team meeting poor families to find out why poverty persists. The research also includes...