Flat yields for five years and rising insecticide use are jeopardising the success of Bt cotton technology Cotton has been the biggest success story in Indian agriculture since the Green Revolution. In a country struggling with stagnant yields in most crops, cotton has been the one bright spot. Production has soared from 13.6 million bales (each bale is 170 kg) in 2002-03 to 31.2 million bales in 2010-11—a figure that catapulted...

-IANS   Hundreds of thousands of people in Bihar are living in fear after heavy rains caused several rivers to swell and flood over 100 villages, officials said Monday. The Bagmati river breached its embankment in Muzaffarpur district, while the rising waters in the Gandak and Kosi rivers are also posing a serious threat. "Bagmati river breached its embankment near Basghatta village in Muzaffarpur, creating panic in dozens of villages as the flood...

-The Hindu   Seventeen people have died and over nine lakh people have been affected in the nearly fortnight-long spell of rains in West Bengal. Ten districts have been affected by heavy floods, Disaster Management Minister Javed Khan has said in the Assembly. He said that 25,750 mud houses have been damaged or washed away due to the rains caused by a depression. The districts affected were Malda, Murshidabad, Purba Medinipur, Howrah, North...

-The Economic Times   Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has approved two mining proposals - one by Iifco and the other by the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam - on the fringes of the Hasdeo-Arand forest region in Chhattisgarh. Ramesh set aside the recommendation of the statutory body of the environment ministry, the Forest Advisory Committee , to reject the proposals. With Thursday's order, coal mining will be allowed in Tara, Parsa...

When Sushil Kumar heard that the government was about to offer drought-hit farmers compensation in the form of monetary relief, his hopes rose. Production may have been poor, but all was not lost. With the compensation amount he would get, Kumar thought he would buy better seeds to sow for the next cropping season. And if there was still any extra left, he may even consider buying a thresher. That...