With rich natural resources, biodiversity, dependable rainfall (annual average close to 2000 mm) and lower use of pesticides, north eastern states of the country could become a hub for organic products cultivation, the demand for which is up in global markets, an independent research paper has said. The paper has also urged the central government and the North Eastern Development Council to create an umbrella policy so that the potential of...

An outbreak of papaya mealy bug has affected hundreds of acres of papaya grown in and around Kannivadi and Reddiyarchatram regions in Dindigul district. Since the bug has caused severe damage to the crops, farmers have incurred huge losses. The mealy bug is a polyphagous sucking pest that infests crops such as cotton, papaya, tapioca, mulberry, jatropha and other cultivable crops. The pest sucks the sap of the plant and weakens...

Even as recent media reports caution that most fruits and vegetables are largely unfit for human consumption due to their high chemical content, pesticides continue to be used recklessly in the fields of Punjab. The ‘Granary of India’ constitutes 2.5 per cent of the total agricultural land in India, but consumes more than 18 per cent of the total pesticides used in India. Within the state the worst affected is the southwestern...

Acting with determination and firm action, it should be possible for India to step up its agricultural growth rate to 10 per cent. The 11th Five Year Plan seeks to achieve 4 per cent growth rate in agriculture by the end of the Plan period. The Planning Commission is working towards an overall 9 per cent to 10 per cent growth rate. But the target of 4 per cent growth rate is...

Some 48,315 tonnes of wheat procured by the Punjab government is to be fed to cattle after being declared unfit for human consumption. The stock, enough to feed around 595,000 people through the public distribution system (PDS) for a year, had piled up over the previous three years. Officials at the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which declared the grains unfit after an inquiry in March, said Punjab’s procurement agencies had...