-The Hindu Business Line Sowing of all rabi crops increased to 664.59 lh The rabi acreage this year is 8 lakh hectares (lh) higher so far, from the corresponding period last year, and with conducive weather continuing, there may not be concerns on yield, and potentially help the country to have another year of bumper harvest. Please click here to read more.  ...

-The Hindu Lower surplus, higher prices could help reduce arrears to farmers in poll bound U.P. and Punjab Unseasonal rains in Uttar Pradesh and a higher diversion to ethanol production are likely to result in a drop in sugar production this year, according to industry estimates. With average retail sugar prices also on the rise, a reduction in surplus sugar could help speed up cane payments by mills and reduce their pending...

-IndiaToday.in The state is experimenting with tea and coffee plantation as part of its attempt to diversify crop Has Chhattisgarh woken up to smell the coffee? For long a preserve of the south, coffee cultivation seems to be traveling north. Things started brewing after a few enterprising farmer entrepreneurs started coffee and tea plantations in the state. The Jashpur district in North Chhattisgarh has a coffee plantation; another was set up on...

-Down to Earth  The past three decades have seen stagnation in acreage, production and productivity of pulses across the country due to a bevy of reasons that include availability of more profitable crops The primary reason behind India’s domestic shortage in pulses is stagnation of production over the past five decades. Overcoming the Pulses Crisis, a 2010 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry, states the production of pulses grew only by...

-The Hindu Business Line Total area down 11.5 per cent; coarse cereals, oilseeds planting drops 20% With the south-west monsoon being seven per cent below normal till Friday, sowing of kharif crops continues to be affected. Data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmerss Welfare show that sowing lost its momentum further in terms of percentage. Data showed that a total of 612 lakh hectares (lh) had been covered till date compared...