-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The controversy over stubble burning continued to have an impact on wheat sowing across Central and North India with the total area under wheat cultivation slumping by 12 per cent to 110.66 lakh hectares (lh) as compared to the corresponding period last year. The total acreage under rabi crops, however, inched close to normal, thanks to an increase in the area of cultivation of pulses and...

How many happy seeder machines are currently available in Haryana and Punjab? Against the backdrop of a recent advisory issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in response to the dense smog that engulfed the entire NCR since October this year, the above question seems pertinent. The happy seeder machine is considered as a magic bullet  to curb the menace of stubble burning during the wheat-paddy cropping cycle,...

-The Hindu Business Line Market rates have fallen below MSP levels due to demonetisation hangover, poor offtake Bengaluru: The Narendra Modi government is finding it hard to live up to its promise of doubling farm incomes by 2022 given the challenge it faces in addressing the unremunerative prices of farm produce. The kharif harvest began a little over a month ago, and already the prices of a majority of the crops have slipped...

-Livemint.com Farm activists, environmentalists spar with pesticide companies over cause of more than 40 deaths Mumbai: The deaths of over 40 farmers and farm workers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region since July has put the spotlight on the abuse of pesticides and lack of protection for those spraying them, even as a committee investigating the case prepares to submit its findings this week. A seven-member special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Maharashtra government...

-The Hindu Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication does nothing in the battle against graft — there are better alternatives In a sickening way, October 2017 was like October 2002. Fifteen years ago, in Rajasthan’s Baran and Udaipur districts, there was a spate of starvation deaths. The government of the time made up fanciful stories to deny that the deaths had anything to do with hunger or government failure. In October 2017, the death of an 11-year-old...