The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved a plan by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to prepare the nation’s crops, livestock and fisheries for rising temperatures and other impacts of climate change. The National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture will receive Rs 350 crore for multiple projects — from developing heat-tolerant rice and wheat to tracking the spawning behaviour of marine and freshwater fish amid rising temperatures. The programme will...

Climate change is springing an unpleasant surprise on agriculture in India, catching both farmers and governments unprepared. The erratic and deficit rainfall pattern and rise in temperature in recent years has even forced farmers to change cropping patterns and several areas have been declared drought-hit.Agricultural scientists acknowledge that even a mere one degree increase in average day temperature would adversely impact production of both wheat and rice crops (total annual...

No proposal to revise Minimum Support Price Despite demands from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, there is no proposal with the Centre to revise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) or announce any bonus for wheat, paddy and sugarcane crops. However, it is working towards a system of ensuring remunerative prices under which farmers do not require any concessions in future, according to Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad...

Pawan Goenka noticed something unusual last year—tractor sales were climbing even though India had its worst monsoon in more than three decades and farm output dropped 2.8% in the three months to December last fiscal. The umbilical cord that tied rainfall patterns and tractor sales seemed to have been ruptured. The president of auto and tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd offers an interesting explanation to this puzzle: growing labour shortages...

There has been no major impact on wheat production of the rising temperature in India, Minister of State for Agriculture K.V. Thomas said on 4th December even as experts say global warming threat looms large over farm productivity.There is no major impact observed on wheat production due to rising temperature in the recent past. There has been an increasing trend in wheat production since 2007-08, Thomas said in a written...