Commissioner of cane development and sugar director A K Monnappa regretted that the benefits of research in agriculture sector were not reaching the farmers adequately though there have been rise in research activities in recent years. Inaugurating the four-day training programme on improved cultivation of sugarcane and sugar beet for the cane development staff of sugar factories in north Karnataka held at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on Tuesday,...

With just a month remaining for sugarcane crushing, a confrontation between farmers and private millers in Uttar Pradesh on the price to be paid to growers is on the cards. In no exception to previous years, both parties have divergent views on what should a farmer get for his produce. At a meeting of a committee formed under the chairmanship of Uttar Pradesh Cane Commissioner Kamran Rizvi to fix the state-advised...

In our frantic search for solutions to our water crisis, we tend to overlook the self-evident relationship between water, food, and energy. It is still not too late. As my colleague Tony Allan, a Stockholm Water Prize laureate says so pithily, the three are the corners of a triangle with politics and emotion at its center. About 80 percent of accessible freshwater in Asia is used for agriculture; the rest...

Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the government will not take any decision on decontrol of the sugar sector without consulting the states and the process of which will begin in 8-10 days. "I am going to start the process of discussion with the stakeholders and the state governments in 8-10 days time. Without the consultation, I will not move any proposal (on decontrol) to the Cabinet," he told...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that the kharif production at 114.63 million tonnes for 2010-11 crop year was “comfortable.” “The output is better than last year which was a drought year, but lower than 2008-09, which was a normal year.” “The kharif production looks good. Area under crops such as paddy, pulses, cotton and sugarcane is more than last year,'' he told journalists after the Agriculture Ministry released the...