-The Hindustan Times Fatehgarh Sahib (Punjab): With power crisis worsening in Punjab, farmers in the region have turned to innovations such as using tractor batteries and generators to run tube wells for irrigation. Saying that paddy required plenty of water for cultivation, the farmers claimed the power cuts crippled water supply. On Friday, the PSPCL had decided to reduce power supply to farmers by two hours in order to facilitate better supply...

-The Hindu Adilabad (Telengana): Alarmed over the continuing dry spell and the expected power shortage in the near future, the Agriculture Department in the district has advised farmers to desist from cultivating paddy this kharif season. Paddy cultivation could result in failure, besides drastically depleting groundwater level in the coming months, officials said. The normal area under Paddy cultivation during the season is about 52,000 hectares and farmers are making preparations for...

-The Hindu Business Line   As Indian consumption rises, the cereal available for exports may shrink For millennia, rice has been an integral part of the cuisine across Asian nations. China (140 million tonnes) and India (105 million tonnes) are two of the world's largest producers of rice followed at a distance by Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan. Major exporters include Thailand, India, Vietnam and Pakistan while major importers include...

-The Telegraph The country's third driest June over a hundred years might have prompted the Union government to come up with agriculture contingency plans for around 500 districts but Bihar for one seems blessed in this field. In spite of 32 per cent deficient rainfall across the state in June, the overall sowing of paddy seedlings till July 1 stood at 2,57,660 hectares, substantially higher than the area of 2,31,000 hectares covered...

-The Deccan Chronicle Kollam (Kerala): Kulasekharapuram, a small panchayat on the border of Kollam district is all set to implement the United Nation's call to observe 2014 as International Family Farming Year, raising the slogan of self-sustainability in food production. The panchayat has two villages, Adinad and K.S. Puram and as many as 12,230 families in 23 wards. The agricultural office of the panchayat had identified the fact that extensive cultivation alone...