-The Guardian Agriculture hit by both urban and rural pollution as wheat and Rice yield decrease significantly, study finds Air pollution in India has become so severe that yields of crops are being cut by almost half, scientists have found. Researchers analysed yields for wheat and rice alongside pollution data, and concluded significant decreases in yield could be attributed to two air pollutants, black carbon and ground level ozone. The finding has...

-The Hindu THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Much of the drop in yield came from air pollution caused by fine particles like soot as well as ozone generated by sunlight acting on emissions of precursor molecules. India's food grain production is facing a double whammy, with heightened air pollution adding to the impact of climate change on crop yields, according to a recent study. "Our statistical model suggests that, averaged over India, yields in 2010 were up...

-The Economic Times LONDON: Large areas of rich irrigated and fertile land in the Indo-Gangetic basin is being lost daily to salt damage, confirms the UN. Crop yield losses on salt-affected lands for wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton grown on salt-affected lands could be 40%, 45%, 48%, and 63%, respectively. Employment losses could be 50-80 man-days per hectare, with an estimate 20-40% increase in human health problems and 15-50% increase in animal health...

-The Financial Express In a bid to promote optimum water usage and increase farmers' income, a new cropping method is being tested across northern India In a bid to promote optimum water usage and increase farmers' income, a new cropping method is being tested across northern India through sowing of moong bean in the same field prior to harvest of wheat crop. The short duration - 60 to 65 days - moong is...

-Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad: Temperatures will go up and the productivity of farmlands will come down in future. This could lead to a food crisis, warned the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report. With increasing temperatures IPCC has also cautioned that in the rice bowls of South India heat stress on the rice crop is already approaching critical levels. The report warned that the winter yield of some crops...