-Deccan Herald Learning from the Sikkim experience, the Modi government on Monday announced bringing 5 lakh acres of rainfed land under organic farming over the next three years. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the allocation of Rs 412 crore for two schemes – Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region – that seek to promote organic farming. “The ‘Parmparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana’ will bring 5 lakh acres...

-Business Standard Drop in wheat acreage evidence of stress in agriculture Chandigarh: Two consecutive drought years have led to rural distress in the food bowl states. At some places, this has become even worse due to the attack of the white pest. Sahiblal Shukla, a farmer in Chitrakut in Uttar Pradesh , who has spent his lifetime in ploughing fields says that, “farmers in Bundelkhand area of the state may soon pack their...

-The Tribune To ensure stable prices of pulses and attractive returns for producers, policies of domestic prices and tariffs should blend. Import duties must be calibrated with demand. As the Indian economy grows at a rate of 7 per cent plus, assuming low growth as an aberration, the food basket will diversify. Within grains, the movement will be to pulses as shown by the  expert group on pulse production. The yield and...

-The Hindu The system brought down input costs — two to four kg of seeds per acre against 30 kg needed for fertiliser-based, water-intensive farming A model evolved for applying traditional wisdom in farming has also helped in conserving indigenous paddy varieties that are under threat of extinction. The Biodiversity Rainfed Farming System, promoted by Rural Organisation for Social Education, a not-for-profit voluntary organisation, in four blocks of Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu,...

-DNA Wondering about the plight of the rural population facing successive droughts which has to buy pulses, South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) laments how no benefit of the price hike is reaching actual pulse farmers. While most link the current tur (pigeon pea) dal crisis with raging market prices, storage issues, hoarding and economics, a new study highlighting the making of the crisis - by South Asia Network...