-The Deccan Herald Debal Deb has conserved around 700 species of rice   Government spends millions of dollars on developing one variety of rice where as thousands of traditional varieties are pushed under the carpet, said Agricultural scientist Debal Deb. He was addressing media persons after releasing a documentary Agricultural scientist ‘Pearls of wisdom’, narrating stories of farmers and agricultural scientists involved in conserving native varieties of rice. “There are farmers who have conserved traditional...

-The Telegraph   Farmers in Bengal left around 2.8 lakh hectares uncultivated in the just-concluded boro crop season, a silent expression of no-confidence in the state government’s paddy procurement process and a fallout of rising fertiliser prices. The area cultivated in the boro season (January to end-February) can be considered a barometer for man-made farming systems because farmers largely depend on irrigation during this phase. The bigger aman crop (June to August) still...

The State government of the day spares no occasion to make a mention of the “shambles” the 34 years of Left rule has left West Bengal in. The Economic Review presented in the State Legislative Assembly, however, tells a different story. It highlights several areas where the State's performance has been “impressive over the last few years”. Mention is made of progress in agriculture, industry, rural development, industrial relations and rising...

-IANS Farmers of Assam, that recently boasted of having a record rice harvest, are losing interest in paddy cultivation, saying they were facing financial ruin in the absence a minimum support price and adequate procurement centres for their produce. Rice production is going down as the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has not fixed the price to buy back the farmers’ produce, say farmers’ representatives. And there are only 20 FCI procurement...

-IANS Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's dream of India's second green revolution taking off from Bihar seems to be coming closer to reality. A young farmer of Darveshpura village in his native Nalanda district has set what is claimed to be a world record in potato production through organic farming.  Three months ago, a group of farmers in the same village had created a "world record" producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare...