-The New Indian Express Bangalore: Agricultural technologies can help increase global crop yields by as much as 67 per cent and cut food prices by in half by 2050, according to a new book, ‘Food Security in a World of Natural Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies.' The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, has released this book recently. The book cites an increased demand for food due to population and...

-TheWeekendLeader.com Despite a drought-like situation across Rajasthan this year, farmers of a small village on the edge of the Thar Desert reaped good harvest from their fruit orchards. They are growing vegetables this winter. Just five years ago, residents of Khidrat struggled to arrange drinking water, let alone water for irrigation. Due to scanty rainfall (see table), groundwater was not only dipping, it had turned brackish. Even deep borewells would yield saline...

-The Hindu A NABARD scheme has led to the revival of the nearly-extinct variety of paddy PUDUKOTTAI (Tamil Nadu): A farmer of Marundhanthalai village near here has revived a paddy variety, garudan samba, which was on the verge of extinction. Adopting bio-cultivation practices and the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technique, the farmer R. Ganesan raised the 160-day- crop under the Farm Innovation Promotion Fund scheme of the National Bank for Agriculture...

-The Hindu     Modified scheme benefits tenants and covers all food grain PUDUKOTTAI (Tiruchirapalli): Crop insurance scheme is being implemented as modified national agricultural insurance scheme in all the 13 blocks in Pudukottai district during 2013-14 based on the administrative sanction accorded by the Centre and approval by the State government. Under the scheme, weather-based crop insurance scheme and coconut palm insurance scheme are implemented at revenue-village-level for losses suffered due to nature's fury....

-The Business Standard This is happening especially with small and marginal farms Bhopal: In contrast to the tall claims of achieving double digit growth in agriculture sector National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) today said agriculture in Madhya Pradesh is perceived to be increasingly unviable owing to yield and price risks as well as lack of risk mitigation mechanism. This is happening especially with small and marginal farms. Interestingly, government...