-The Times of India BHOPAL: Starved of cash, 15 farmers of a village in Gwalior deposited 45 quintals of paddy as their children's school fees on Saturday. The school management sold the crop at a mandi and got a cheque of Rs 58,500. Bhitarwar region of Gwalior is known as the rice bowl of Madhya Pradesh, and paddy is the main crop of the kharif season. Villages here have run out of...
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Alternatives to rationalise consumption -Satyapal Menon
-TheHansIndia.com Driven by conservation concerns about the huge pressure on the water resources in the country, there is a growing debate in India about the feasibility of cultivating paddy crops. Such apprehensions are based on the premise that paddy consumes huge quantum of water and consequently it is proving to be a drain on depleting water resources in India. On an average, 2,500 liters of water is required for producing one kg...
More »Grand scheme to befriend farmers -Amita Bhaduri
-India Water Portal Despite farmers’ apprehension, the new crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, is considered a game changer. “Agriculture is a highly risky venture,” says Nagi Reddy, a farmer in Anantapur. Reddy is a small farmer affected by uncertainty in crop production stemming from unpredictable weather events and pest attacks, especially in his cotton crop. He works on his 2.5-acre farm and the rest of the time, he...
More »The rice that changed the world -K Deepalakshmi
-The Hindu IR8, the high-yielding rice variety helped India fight famine, turns 50 this month In 1967, when a 29-year-old N. Subba Rao sowed a semidwarf variety of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he wouldn't have thought he would be part of a revolution in rice cultivation. What Dr. Rao sowed in his farm was IR-8, a rice variety developed by the International Rice Research...
More »Farmers short of cash, West Bengal stares at 1/3 paddy wastage -Aniruddha Ghosal
-The Indian Express The problem is particularly pronounced in Bardhaman district — known as the rice bowl of Bengal. Kolkata: West Bengal’s agriculture department has estimated that 35 per cent of the monsoon paddy might go waste if not harvested in time, an exercise that has been badly hit with farmers lacking the cash to pay for labour. The estimate is part of an agriculture department report, commissioned to assess the impact...
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