-The Indian Express This comes even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the 14th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification on Monday, mentioned that “we are focusing on ZBNF”. India’s premier academic body of agricultural scientists has hit out at Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), terming it as an “unproven” technology bringing no incremental value gain to either farmers or consumers. “The government should not needlessly invest capital...

-Down to Earth To reduce the consumption of water and maximise agricultural productivity in the country, the government is trying to introduce different innovations The gap between irrigation potential created, through major and minor projects, and the actual usage is increasing and affecting the country’s agricultural productivity, according to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the premier agricultural education and research body under the Union Ministry of Agriculture. "The key challenge facing...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Backed by consistent progress in sowing of kharif crops, the Centre on Monday said it was hopeful of achieving its record foodgrain production target of 291 million tonnes in the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) even as floods in some parts hit the summer crops. It is expected that light rains of short duration, as predicted in subdued monsoon phase in the coming weeks, will prove...

-The Economic Times Zero-budget farming is being promoted in several areas as a low-cost, natural alternative to prevalent practices of heavy use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. NEW DELHI: The government has asked the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India’s top farm research institution, to conduct a study on the efficacy zero budget farming (ZBF) results before its nationwide rollout. NITI Aayog member and agricultural economics and policy expert Ramesh Chand...

-The Hindu Business Line Silencing the critics of Indian green revolution, who have been arguing that its achievements were short-lived and that a fatigue had set in a long ago, a senior Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) official on Friday said there is ample proof to show that the country is still going through a green revolution which is rather a silent one. The productivity gains of Indian agriculture in the...