-The Times of India Margao: Perhaps for the first time since it was established in 2006, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Margao, has undertaken demonstration of newer varieties of paddy in its farm on a large scale, thereby signifying its shift from its earlier role of sustaining and supporting agriculture in the state to research and innovation. In all, 11 new varieties of...

-The Hindu Low output and land fragmentation are critical issues, says survey Tamil Nadu: The writing on the wall for Tamil Nadu in agriculture is pretty clear, though the State's grain production during 2013-14 was good. The latest Economic Appraisal of the government has shown that Tamil Nadu needs out-of-the-box policies to tackle agriculture production and its impact on food inflation. The State did well in 2013-14 to bounce back from a nightmare drought...

-India Today Geography of rice and wheat has been transformed with Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh generating surpluses Almost 50 years ago, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri went on air to appeal to Indians to skip a meal a day. Foodgrain supplies had come under strain after the 1965 drought, and the patriotic ethos cautioned against over-consumption: what you ate left that much less for the rest. Today, it is...

-i9media When tourism alone couldn't achieve the desired growth, modernisation of agriculture was adopted and thus the district of Umaria in Madhya Pradesh was able to achieve prosperity. Madhya Pradesh has been continuously drawing attention of other states because of its agricultural growth in recent years. Some of its districts, which used to have very low productivity, are now contributing significantly in the agricultural development. Umaria is one such district where agriculture...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The emphasis on use of digital technologies to bridge the "rural-urban gap" in the union budget is limited to high talk and minimal allocations. The need for a more comprehensive and peoples' participation-oriented rural action plan should have been the focus while setting sectoral allocations, but that is not to be in this mid-year budget. Vipul Mudgal (vipulmudgal@gmail.com) heads the Inclusive Media for Change project at the Centre...