-Women's Feature Service Tribal families in Bankura, West Bengal, living on a stable diet of potato and rice and occasionally some 'daal' (lentils), are now consuming a variety of vegetables, cereals, fruits and animal protein with relish on a daily basis, marking a sea change in the nutrition parametres in one of the most backward districts of India. The credit for this dramatic transformation goes to the dry land sustainable integrated farming...

-The Hindu Business Line How ‘Protected Cultivation' can help prevent crop damage due to national disasters While the first green revolution managed to make the nation self sufficient the next round of reforms certainly needs to address the problems faced by today's farmers. According to statistics available on Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India reaped a record foodgrain production of 259.32 million tonnes (mt) in 2011-12. However, the output fell to 257.13...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: Shortage of seeds, high prices set by dealers and middle men, lack of enough quantity of seeds, and lack of money - are all factors that contribute to lack of seeds, which means lack of crop for thousands of farmers across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In an attempt to better this situation, Rythu Bandhu magazine, Hyderabad-based Telugu magazine that works for the empowerment of farmers, in...

-IBNLive.in New Delhi: Expressing concern over the poor plight of farmers, Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday urged them to grow crops other than wheat and rice to come out of poverty. Farmers can earn more if they have diversification in crops that can be used for manufacturing ethanol, electricity, bio-gas among other products, he said. "Today, farmers' situation is very bad. We cannot get our farmers out of poverty if...

-The Hindu Trap crops are grown to attract insects or other organisms to protect main crops from pest attack. Protection may be achieved either by preventing the pests from reaching the crop or by concentrating them in certain parts of the field where they can be destroyed. The principle of trap cropping rests on the fact that virtually all pests show a distinct preference to a certain crop stage. Farmers are being...