-Livemint.com Wheat sowing is lower by 5.6%, pulses by nearly 7% and oilseeds shows a lag of nearly 12%, compared to the normal area sown by this time of the year New Delhi: An unusually dry and warm winter across northern India has impacted sowing of winter crops, even as the window for planting is nearing its end. While overall sowing of Rabi (winter) crops is lagging behind by 6% compared to...

-The New Indian Express DHENKANAL: The farmers of the district feel discouraged to grow rabi crops after they bore the brunt of crop damage due to erratic and scanty rainfall during kharif season. Sources said farmers of almost all the blocks are not showing  interest to take up cultivation in the rabi season. Considering the plight of the farmers, the district agriculture department has decided to grow paddy in 534 hectares (ha) against...

-Outlook Haryana’s new, ‘progressive’ panchayat election rules skewers the chances of women and the marginalised In rural Haryana, last year’s drought-hit fields are finally giving way to the verdant yellow and green of mustard, but the people are restive, even angry. All along the glittering 250-km highway that connects Rohtak with Nuh—Haryana’s west and east, also its best and worst—a wedge has been driven between the rich and the poor by...

-The Indian Express Uttar Pradesh farmers have taken well to direct benefit transfers, though there are doubts if it can be extended to fertilisers. Akhilesh Yadav’s government in Uttar Pradesh is turning out to be a pacesetter in implementation of direct benefit transfers (DBT) to farmers. Farmers in UP got Rs 28.60 per quintal from the state government for the sugarcane they supplied to mills during the 2014-15 crushing season. The payments, totalling...

-The Indian Express Farmers have so far sown only 38.91 lakh hectares (lh) under pulses in the current rabi season from October. Dry weather extending to the post-monsoon period has led to reduced plantings of most rabi crops, raising the prospect of a fourth consecutive harvest failure for farmers and also making it more difficult for the RBI to slash interest rates. Farmers have so far sown only 38.91 lakh hectares (lh)...