-The Telegraph The tearing hurry with which agriculture market reforms have been pushed through, without even consulting farmers, has resulted in huge farm protests in Punjab and Haryana At a time when I see euphoria among mainstream economists over the new set of agricultural reforms, media reports say that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has observed that only 12 per cent of India’s paddy cultivators were able to sell their...

-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: Even as the Prime Minister has assured farmers of help in fighting massive locust attacks, the early arrival of the desert locust swarms has set off alarms bells in the agriculture scientist and entomologist community. The community had expected a smaller infestation in June and July, but the early arrival has the community worried about the kharif sowing. A senior scientist told BusinessLine that in a day,...

-Hindustan Times Flood-based irrigation in Haryana, Punjab a threat to groundwater which is depleting over 3 feet every year Chandigarh: Breaking the traditional wheat-paddy cycle is the need of the hour to preserve groundwater for the future generations, reveals a research conducted by scientists of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal (Haryana). Asserting that the rice crop alone consumes about 50% of the total irrigation water, the researchers have suggested radical...

-The Hindu 30 participants from eight States take part in the five-day training programme VISAKHAPATNAM (Andhra Pradesh): A five-day national training programme on millets discussed the possibilities of intercropping millets in commercial crops and major millets. Since the area that had been traditionally used to cultivate millets is presently replaced by cash crops like soya, groundnut and cotton intercropping is an option to bring back millets, according to M.L. Sanyasi Rao, Programme Manager...

-Down to Earth Instead of making it difficult for the organic farmers, government should devise methods to reduce the complexity of the certification process Organic farming is native to India. However, since 1966, with the inception of the Green Revolution in India, it has taken a backseat. The transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture shifted the objective of farming. The need to change the methods of farming to meet the demands of...