-Down to Earth Low returns and high risks from alternative crops among reasons past efforts failed, says report The Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP) has recommended promotion of crop diversification, favouring oilseed crops amid the global inflation in oilseeds and vegetable oils prices. Global inflation creates a structural risk as vegetable oils account for about half of India’s agricultural import, subsequently raising the country’s agri-import bill, the commission wrote in its...

-ThePrint.in Diversification is critical for Punjab and Haryana farmers who face the challenge of depleting water tables. We need another agricultural revolution. Every time we visit Punjab, we ask farmers why they stick with the rice-wheat cropping pattern year on year. Especially when most are witnessing receding underground water levels, forcing them to deepen their borewells each year during the paddy season. One answer from a young farmer stayed with us. He...

-The Hindu Business Line Will provide garden kits to every home to grow their own nutritional food Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has devised an innovative nutritional self-sufficiency garden programme, among other schemes, as part of its long-term goal to achieve food and nutritional security in the State. It is attempting to get every household in the 12,500-odd villages in the State to grow its requirement of nutritional food in its own backyard....

-The Tribune Minimising paddy straw burning needs multi-pronged and eco-friendly approaches. There is no single solution to manage its massive quantities. All on-field and off-field technologies have limitations. Combined, they would improve soil health, grain production and fertiliser-use efficiency, reduce pollution, and ensure long-term agriculture sustainability. Concerted efforts are needed to make eco-friendly techniques economically viable, especially for small farmers. WITH mechanised farming and assured irrigation, farmers of northwest India raise 2-3...

-The Indian Express To solve India’s deep agrarian crisis, more public investment and government support are needed, not the new farm laws The farmers’ movement invites us to revisit the trajectory of India’s agriculture so as to understand its real problems. Beginning in the mid-1960s, India and, especially, Punjab experienced a massive productivity boom as a result of widespread adoption of Green Revolution technologies. This transition was driven by public investment in...