-Down to Earth   Advance estimates by agriculture ministry project 0.8 million tonnes increase in production over earlier estimate despite freak weather event   The Unseasonal Rains and hail in March this year seem to have had little effect on overall crop production estimation. India is going to witness its highest foodgrain production of 264 milllion tonnes, according to the third advance estimates for 2013-14, released by the Union agriculture ministry on Friday. It...

-IANS   A bumper wheat crop this season should have brought smiles on the faces of Punjab's hard-working farmers. But a variety of adverse circumstances, including the weather, has left them dispirited. The bumper crop apart, Punjab farmers have been forced to deal with Unseasonal Rainfall and thunderstorms in recent days with the harvested crop lying in the open in grain markets and agricultural fields getting wet and moisture content in the grains...

-The Hindu   Karimnagar (Andhra Pradesh): With the bumper paddy crop and prevailing unseasonal conditions of sudden rains and hailstorms in the district, farmers are being forced to resort to distressed harvesting of their crop with the harvesters by shelling out huge amount. Taking advantage of the situation, the harvesters are charging heavily and making a fast buck in Karimnagar district, where the paddy crop is expected to be around 13.5 lakh metric...

-The Hindu Business Line   Technology is transforming Indian agriculture and increasing output. This is good news, given that India may need to produce 90 million tonnes of foodgrain annually by 2030 to feed its growing population, says Vishwanath Kulkarni Jitendra, a prosperous farmer from Machrauli in Haryana, had barely hired a combine to harvest wheat on his 10-acre plot when clouds started building up. The weather office had predicted rains over the...

-The Business Standard   However, PDS won't be hampered as govt hold 48 mn tonnes in its warehouses The government on Tuesday said its wheat procurement for the 2014-15 marketing year (ending March 2015) is likely to be below the last year's level of 25 million tonnes (mt) due to poor quality of the crop. However, for a government which has been battling lack of storage space during the ongoing wheat procurement season,...