-The Indian Express RSF mentions that government was using prosecutions to “gag journalists who are overly critical” of it, invoking, among other sections, sedition charges, which are punishable by a life-term in jail. New Delhi: On the account of “deadly threat” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “nationalism”, India has slipped down two ranks compared to last year in the Reporter’s Without Border’s (Reporters Sans Frontières, RSF) World Press Freedom Index 2018....

-The Economic Times New Delhi: The Agriculture ministry is targeting record foodgrain output of 283.7 million tonnes in the crop year beginning July, with 140.20 million tonnes targeted for the kharif (summer-sown) crop, on expectation of normal rains during the June-September monsoon season. “The weather office forecast of normal monsoon this year is good news for kharif planting and farmers,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said. He said the government was working...

-Down to Earth This new development will benefit the scheduled tribes residing in Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister on Wednesday (April 25) approved the declaration of 227 villages in three districts of Rajasthan as Schedule Areas. The declaration of Scheduled Areas under Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of India was done by rescinding the Constitution Order 114 of February 12, 1981 and promulgating a new Constitution...

-The Indian Express The crop in a well-marked plot of this field is, then, harvested, threshed, winnowed and weighed. If the produce contains moisture, it has to be dried first before weighing. Crop cutting experiments (CCE) have traditionally been conducted to obtain reliable average yield rates for estimation of agricultural production. These are mostly done by district/subdivision-level officials from the revenue, economics and statistics or agriculture departments of the concerned State Governments....

-The Hindu Business Line A study of Farmer Producer Organisations in Bihar show mixed results — some successes but several challenges too The government has this lofty goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Among the different instruments to achieve this goal, promotion of new and scaling up of existing Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) have been given focus. Given the extremely small landholdings, FPOs, through collectivisation, which leads to economies of scale, are...