To make the domestic coconut industry globally competitive, the Coconut Development Board has decided to impart technological training to farmers, processors, traders and exporters. To facilitate this, Union Minister of State for Agriculture K.V. Thomas will lay the foundation stone for a ‘farmers block' at the board's headquarters in Kochi on Septem ber 2, which is being observed as the World Coconut Day. The venue would serve as a centre for...

The kharif acreage has exceeded the last year's level by 78.93 lakh hectares. The Crop and Weather Watch Group in the Ministry of Agriculture, at its meeting on Friday, noted that the crops were so far sown in 950.22 lakh hectares as against 871.29 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year. As per the data received from States, paddy has been sown in 312.42 lakh hectares as compared to 293.24 lakh...

Members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the government body for implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, have suggested that jobs be guaranteed round the year in Naxal-hit regions. The suggestion, made by one of the six working groups set up for improving the scope of the MNREGS, came up for discussion at Friday's CEGC meeting here. The group said that in drought prone areas and regions...

The Centre’s sunshine law — Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, — has failed to find favour in Khunti district, the birthplace of tribal icon Birsa Munda. Villagers in the district said the new act is irrelevant as the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908, framed by the British following the Birsa movement, ensures more rights to the tribals than what the new law promises. Little...

Thanks to a fairly good Southwest Monsoon, the total area under kharif crops in the ongoing sowing season is 8.33 million hectares, higher than last year. According to the Agriculture Ministry, against an area of 92.3 million hectares this season, the coverage was 83.97 million hectares in the corresponding period last year. The area under paddy is higher by about seven per cent. Against 27.6 million hectares sown last year, this year so...