-Livemint.com Panel aims to find ways to diversify risks in farming, examine how integrated farming can boost incomes New Delhi: The central government has set up a panel to suggest ways to double farm incomes by 2022, as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The task of the inter-ministerial committee will prepare a blueprint to transition farm policies from being production oriented to based on incomes or value addition. The committee will look...

-Hindustan Times About 330 million people are affected by drought in 10 states as 256 districts reel from severe water shortages and poor farmers suffer crop losses. The current dry spell is partly because of two back-to-back years of bad monsoons. Policy makers have no control over fickle weather whims. As credit rating and research agency Crisil points out, the rising frequency of weather shocks amid higher vulnerabilities has compounded agrarian...

-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...

-The Hindu Business Line How Uttarakhand has roped in top scientists to popularise science among schoolchildren Twice each year, the sleepy town of Gangolihat in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand comes alive as hundreds of school students from nearby areas throng the campus of the Himalayan Gram Vikas Samiti (HGVS) to have their scientific curiosities addressed by top scientists from prestigious research institutes. These month-long events have been held annually during April-May and October-November...

-PTI NEW DELHI: With bollworm developing resistance to Bt cotton crop, the government has decided to promote cultivation of indigenous varieties of the crop in a big way this year. In 2015-16 crop year (July-June), there was a significant damage to cotton crop because of whitefly and pink bollworm pest attack in states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajashtan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Almost 90 per cent of the country's cotton cultivation area is under...