-The Hindu Contingency plan focusing on alternative crops drawn up VIJAYAWADA (Andhra Pradesh): After declaring 296 mandals as drought affected, the State government has suggested the Farmers to cultivate short duration varieties like jowar, horsegram, cowpea, korra, red , green and black gram. Seed distribution The Agriculture department has prepared a contingency plan to handle the situation focusing on alternative crops, supply of sufficient quantities of seed and employment generation work. As part of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is mulling bringing organic produce under the minimum support price (MSP) regime to promote pesticide-free farming in the country. At present, there is no support price for organic produce, except in Sikkim which approved it in May for horticultural items. The agriculture ministry recently discussed offering 20% higher MSP for organic farm produce over traditional (non-organic) produce and procuring a minimum 10% of organic...

-TheWire.in The government cannot procure the entire production of millets in the country and the only way to ensure profitability for millet Farmers is to promote domestic consumption. On October 3, the government announced the minimum support prices (MSP) for Rabi crops that will be sown between October and December. While the MSP for wheat has been raised by 6.1%, that of safflower has seen an increase of 20.6%, the highest. These...

-The Times of India KAYAD, AJMER: Minutes before election dates were announced and the model code of conduct kicked in, CM Vasundhara Raje announced free power to Farmers in rural areas in her address at the ‘Vijay Sankalp Sabha’, where the PM also launched his campaign. Her announcement came around 2 pm, just an hour before Election Commission announced the date for the election. The EC had earlier scheduled its announcement for...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: India has informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) that its proposed national agriculture export policy would be consistent with global trade rules. In a meeting held last week to review farm policies of various countries, India’s proposed policy drew attention owing to concerns over its potential impact on global markets. The policy aims to do away with restrictions such as minimum export prices or outright bans as...