-The Hindu Drop attributed to devastation by three successive cyclones ELURU (Andhra Pradesh): West Godavari district registered a sharp decline in the yield of paddy in kharif. The trend is attributed to the extensive damage caused by a series of three cyclones, one after the other. The crop cutting experiments undertaken by the Agriculture Department estimated the yield to be around 8.67 lakh tonnes, against the initial expectations of 12.36 lakh tonnes....

-The Week Telangana leader claims he is making astronomical profits from capsicum farming Telangana: Not many politicians who own land are farmers. But Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao is different. While he ensures Telangana remains a burning issue, Rao is also busy growing capsicum, potato, bitter gourd, and bottle gourd. The capsicum crop itself, he claims, will fetch him Rs.10 crore. His claim of huge returns and promise of land...

-The Hindu Adoption of high production technology and cultivation of high yielding varieties have put tremendous pressure on soil nutrient reserve in the country leading to a great imbalance in nutrient status in the soil. A large chunk of soil in the country has been rendered deficient in micronutrients, which is one of the major reasons that crops have stopped responding to fertilizers, according to Dr. M Anandaraj, Director of Indian Institute...

-The Indian Express Kutch (Gujarat): Bhajan Singh, 62, remembers the time curious villagers turned up to see a borewell his father Gopal Singh had dug up. The year was 1969 and it was the first time Sumrasar village, near Bhuj in Kutch district, had had a borewell. Few had ever seen it work, as they depended entirely on rainwater for the barely one crop they harvested a year. Originally from Pakistan, Gopal...

-The Hindu The chopping off of the palms of two migrant workers is a wake-up call The gruesome incident of the chopping off of the palms of two migrant labourers of Kalahandi district of western Odisha by the labour contractor mafia in December 2013 should serve as a wake-up call. The incident highlights the ruthless extent to which the mafia can go to meet its ends and brings home the fact that...