-The Hindustan Times A "progressive Punjab agriculture summit", scheduled in SAS Nagar from February 16 to 19 is a welcome step. The event comes close on the heels of an earlier summit on industry. Together, agriculture and industry form a strong fulcrum for Punjab's economic growth and prosperity. However, at present, both are in a grip of crisis; and perhaps unable to face the future challenges/opportunities on their own. It calls for...

-Down to Earth Four-day world congress on agroforestry in Delhi pushes for accelerating growing trees on farms for sustainable agriculture and mitigating climate change impacts In what is seen as a ground-breaking move, India has become the first nation in the world to adopt an agroforestry policy. The National Agroforestry Policy, which deals with the practice of integrating trees, crops and livestock on the same plot of land, was launched February 10,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A man seeking land registration details in a village through Right to Information Act was asked to pay a fee in excess of Rs 21 lakh. When a below poverty line person put up an RTI query on distribution of food grains under PDS, he was told to deposit Rs 2,000 to get the information. Citing these and many such examples, advocate Sanjeeb Panigrahi has filed...

-Oryza.com "Golden Rice will certainly be accepted one day. We are only trying to put pressure so it will be accepted earlier than later. Each second of the day a child dies unnecessarily." These are the words of Dr. Patrick Moore, Canadian ecologist and former director of Greenpeace, who is leading a campaign to make Golden Rice acceptable in the EU and across the world. What's surprising about Dr. Moore's words...

-PTI The previous record of 259.32 million tonnes was achieved in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June) India's farm sector is at its best today, with the country set to produce a record 263.2 million tonnes of foodgrains in the current crop year, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said. Pawar also said he is "the happiest agriculture minister in the world" to see this "stupendous performance" in the sector and the ability of...