A task force, set up by the agriculture ministry, has recommended a slew of measures to increase India’s stagnating grain production. The panel has advised adoption of new technologies, water conservation and more efficient water management, especially in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh—known as ‘the food bowl of India’. The task force also suggests taking green revolution to the eastern region. It is hopeful that the measures would check...

Croplife International, Crop life Asia and the Association of Biotechnology led enterprises special Interest group of Agri Biotechnology (Able-sigab) invited a delegation of Indian farmers to participate in a farm progress show held in Iowa, U.S., recently. The annual farm show being held for nearly last 55 years, holds a reputation as a U.S. premier farm show. Every year the show is held in different parts of America. India lags behind Mr. K.K....

Area under organic farming in India is likely to grow over ten-fold to one crore hectres in the next five years on buoyant domestic market and increased farmers' interest to ensure sustained yield at lower costs. "Since the beginning of organic farming almost ten years back, acreage in India is still minuscule at 11 lakh hectres. I hope this will grow ten-fold in five years," International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture...

Unfortunate though it may seem, many Indians only identify with Ladakh because of the popularity of Three Idiots and the progressive school there which Aamir Khan has now gone to assist. We tend to forget that it is part of Jammu and Kashmir because the unrest in the valley obscures everything else. Ladakh is often described as a cold desert, with scanty rainfall, which is why Leh and its environs were...

Nearly a million tribals have been given land rights under the forest rights act and they will be made stakeholders in development projects, says Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria, as this largely neglected section of Indian society comes to the fore of government policy. “We have received over 28 lakh (2.8 million) representations for land rights, of which 10 lakh claimants have been given land rights,” Bhuria, 60, who is himself...