-The Business Standard Odisha, the first state to have formulated the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) in the country seems to have dug its feet over the implementation of the ambitious plan aimed at fine tuning the balance between industrial growth and environment protection. Delay in preparation of reports by concerned departments, delineating action points and strategies for implementation coupled with lack of inter-departmental coordination has held up the plan implementation envisaging...

-The Pioneer Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Saturday announced that farmers in the State will get interest-free loans. After ending his 24-hour fast observed to protest the hike in fertiliser prices over the last one year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told mediapersons, “This zero per cent rate of interest would be applicable for loans given to farmers since April 1 this year.” When the Congress was in power, farmers used...

Science and technology hold the key to developing low-input, high-output agriculture. The challenge is to use new technologies creatively and to make evidence-based decisions on the deployment of new technologies. Crop breeding is carried out to meet two broad objectives: one, to increase yields of a crop per se and, two, to protect the yield potential by developing crops resistant to diseases, pests and environmental extremes.  Both yield-enhancement and yield-stabilisation are...

RANWAN, India — In this north Indian village, workers recently dismantled stacks of burned and mildewed rice while flies swarmed nearby over spoiled wheat. Local residents said the rice crop had been sitting along the side of a highway for several years and was now being sent to a distillery to be turned into liquor. Just 180 miles to the south, in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi, Leela...

-India Today A top agricultural research official's idea that India's age-old plant genetic resources can be made available to MNCs in return for better technology for farmers has invited criticism from non-governmental groups as well as individuals. Dr S. K. Datta, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) deputy director-general for crop science, claimed that many of India's plant germplasm or species were in the public domain and already being used by MNCs...