Exceeding 235 million tonnes, it has been the highest since Independence India's food production crossed 235 million tonnes during 2010-11 as per the latest estimates and this is the highest since Independence, S. Ayyappan, Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said on Saturday. The previous highest production, at nearly 233 million tonnes, was achieved in 2008-09, while the output declined to around 218 million tonnes during 2009-10, he said interacting...

Over 10 lakh farmers in the state have already taken up organic farming as a result of some aggressive promotion by the agriculture department. Of the nearly 6.5 lakh hectares under organic cultivation, 2.77 lakh have been certified and farmers have been branding their produce as organic produce. Some 2.14 lakh farmers are managing certified organic land and the number is expected to go up as more and more land gets...

DEALS WITH MULTINATIONALS AND OTHER BIG AGRIBUSINESS COMPANIES A wide range of farmers’ organisations, Gandhian organisations, people’s movements and NGOs have united to oppose a series of disturbing agreements which the Rajasthan Government reached with various multinational and other agribusiness companies including Monsanto. These agreements, which greatly increase the control and influence of these companies over the agriculture sector in India’s biggest State (in terms of area), have proved so controversial...

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices may recommend higher prices in its report. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) may recommend higher minimum support price (MSP) for cotton and sunflower in its report. “Cost of production for most crops have gone up by 10-30 per cent over the last year, due to higher inputs costs like labour and fodder. Cotton has fetched higher market prices compared to its MSP...

The debate on genetically modified crops is gaining momentum again. However, this time, it seems the engineered food is losing ground to traditional crops. Eleven farmers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu made a series of submissions explaining the havoc wrought by Bt cotton on their farms. Their main contention was that Bt cotton had not given them economic benefits. As a matter of fact, they had become poorer, their soils had...