-The Hindu Agriculture Department getting more and more enquiries Tiruchirapalli (TIRUCHI): There have been days when Mohan Kumaramangalam (51), a marginal farmer in Kalaththil Ventrar Pettai in Lalgudi taluk, seriously considered giving up farming because of acute shortage of workers. But he has had a change of mind after he acquired a paddy transplanter which helped him overcome shortage of workers. Although he had acquired the motorised but hand-held imported transplanter for his...

-The Indian Express The machines failed to click with farmers after the state government imported around 650 such machines from China and Japan and supplied them to the farmers on subsidy. Ludhiana: paddy transplantation is on in full swing in the state and back in action this season are the forgotten transplanters. The machines failed to click with farmers after the state government imported around 650 such machines from China and Japan and...

-Economic and Political Weekly Why has pulse production stagnated despite measures to boost production being well known? This season, the prices of pulses (dals) have been on fire. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, the average retail price of red gram (tuar) doubled from around Rs 80 a kg in March 2015 to Rs 150–Rs 160 a kg in November 2015. What could...

-The Hindu Tirupur (Tamil Nadu): A group of self-help group women from Kerala is showing the way in mechanised paddy transplantation which was now initiated for the first time in a commercial way in Tirupur district this season. Expertise of members of Haritha Vanitha Labour Bank, a women self-help group at Kollangode in Palakkad district, who were trained in mechanised paddy transplantation and harvest techniques by the Kerala Government, are called...

-Hindustan Times Rohtak: The meteorological (Met) department's prediction of below-average rainfall this year between June and September has raised the concern among paddy growers in the state, who are already reeling under crop losses due to the unseasonal rainfall, which has damaged the rabi crops. The prediction of poor rainfall will not only affect the farmers, but also rice production in the state, as according to the figures given by the state...