-Business Standard The plan will ensure effective distribution of resources from various schemes Bhubaneswar (Odisha): The agricultural directorate will prepare a resource allocation plan by end of March 2015, after consulting Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) and district planning committees. The aim of the plan will be to identify needs to develop farm products yield in each district such as planning to invest in soil preparation, crop diversification or irrigation...

Despite high prices of fruits and vegetables, India's area under horticultural crops - mainly fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers - has doubled in around twenty years (between 1991-92 and 2012-13). This has resulted in increase in production of horticultural crops nearly threefold (2.8 times). A new report from the Ministry of Agriculture says that the area under horticultural crops during this period rose from 12.77 million hectares to 23.69 million...

-The New Indian Express Knocks chief secy's door saying they have been suffering without help for three years PUDUCHERRY (Tamil Nadu): The Puducherry Certified Seed Producers Welfare Association has petitioned the Chief Secretary Chetan B Sanghi, seeking his intervention in the functioning of the Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Krishi Vigyan Kendra (PKKVK), a centre to serve farmers, at Iyankuttipalayam. In a memorandum to the Chief Secretary on Saturday a copy of which was released to...

-The Hindu Panchayat takes uncultivated land on lease for farming ALAPPUZHA (Kerala): Any visitor to Thazhakara grama panchayat in Mavelikara taluk is bound to be welcomed by vast expanses of paddy fields. The local body has scripted a success story by reviving paddy cultivation and vegetable farming on a land that remained barren for around three decades. The panchayat achieved the turnaround by identifying uncultivated land and convincing private landowners to provide such...

-The Indian Express Mawat (Haryana): Farmers Hatti, Ibrahim and Hurmat, of Dhana village in Haryana's Mewat district, died several years ago - the first two in 2001; Hurmat in 2006. But according to the Haryana Horticulture Department, they applied for - and received - subsidy under the National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI) in 2011. "When we went to the district horticulture department office to claim subsidy in 2013, we were told...