The Bihar government has launched an "Organic Farming promotion programme" for the cultivation of organic crops in all the districts of the state. The government has decided to develop 38 "organic grams (organic villages)" for which a sum of Rs 255 crore has been sanctioned for five years. Some of these villages are: Dahour (Patna), Sartha (Nalanda), Belsand (Gopalganj), Gaighat Jaata (Muzaffarpur), Rajapaakar (Vaishali) and Narpatganj (Araria). This programme is being run...

Madhya Pradesh Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Minister Ramkrishna Kusmaria has courted a controversy by blaming farmers’ suicides on their “past sins”. “These are old sins that are resulting in such incidents,”the minister told a TV channel on Wednesday, and elaborated it by pointing to indiscriminate use of “chemicals” that has reduced the fertility and “resistance power” of agricultural land. A few cases of farmers’ suicides have been recently reported from Damoh,...

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rurual Development (NABARD) will pay greater focus on financing through 'Joint Liability Groups' (JLs) in Kerala as it is found more effective way of priority sector lending. JLs are informal groups of even 4-10 individuals joining together for the purpose of availing bank loans through group mechanisms against mutual guarantee. According to NABARD's State Credit Plan 2011-12, financial inclusion through JLGs would be deepened in partnerships...

From green revolution, Andhra Pradesh wants to move to pink revolution in agriculture, with women in the primary role. The project has started in a small way but hopes to turn 60 per cent of the cultivable area in the state over to Organic Farming. It will be implemented with the help of women’s self-help groups, which were in the limelight recently for highlighting the usury ways of micro-finance institutions. Already, over a...

Though Organic Farming has its own advantages, depending solely on it will not help augment food requirements of the country, said director general of ICAR S Ayyappan. “Organic manures can augment the microbial activity, prevent environmental deterioration and restore soil health. It can reduce the chemical load in soil and farm produce. But at this juncture, when quantum of food is close to deficit, one cannot truly identify with the sole...