111231 Sustainable Agriculture and Smallholders – JV We are very happy to welcome the New Year 2012. The passing out year was very eventful. The Planning Commission organized several working groups and one of the groups was to address agriculture. The recommendations made by each of the working groups were very meaningful and useful for [...]

Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University, once a premium agriculture university in the country is now suffering from paucity of funds.   The university which has over rs. 50 cr budget spends Rs. 45 cr for salaries of the scientists and about Rs. 5 cr. for research.  Even in the research budget much of the budget goes [...]

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/257167 Bhopal, Dec 31 (ANI): India, for several years remained synonymous to agriculture whose reflections are still visible with more than 60 percent of its population being dependent upon it. Earlier, our farmers were proud owners of manifolds of indigenous seeds, which besides being visually attractive possessed significant features, high nutrient value and diversity in [...]

Author(s): Jyotika Sood Issue: Jan 15, 2012 Mani Chinnaswamy’s contract farming model has prompted IIM graduates to study his Appachi formula. After all, it gives farmers the right to bargain the price of their produce with the buyer. Talking to Jyotika Sood, the entrepreneur shares the hurdles in the implementation of the formula and its potential to change farmers’ [...]

Bhupat M Desai, Errol D’Souza, John W Mellor, Vijay Paul Sharma, Prabhakar Tamboli Economic and Political Weekly, December 31, 2011 For 40 years, India’s agricultural growth rate has averaged less than one-third of the government’s modest target of 4%. The sector’s performance has been about the same before and after the economic reforms in the early [...]

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/importing-disaster Author: Latha Jishnu Posted on: 29 Dec, 2011 India’s power elite is still seeking US solutions for our problems despite the havoc they  have wreaked upon American society Photo: Franco FoliniMany decades ago when my generation was in its early teens and was captivated by the Merseyside beat of the Beatles along with bell-bottom pants of [...]

SANGRUR: The number of farmer suicides in Punjab seems to vary according to the source providing information about that. An NGO,Movement Against State Repression (MASR), has stated that Punjab is a glaring example of neglecting the factor of farmer suicides when it comes to determining the amount of funds that should be spent on assisting agriculturists. [...]

  Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 % Bt Cotton 0.38 1.2 5.59 11.51 41.42 67.1 80.8 82.43 90.67 cotton, Insecticide 879 839 1052 597 925 1032 649 579 733 791 834 880 Cotton fungicide 11 10 6 3 8 6 8 11 25 31 52 67 Cotton [...]

December 1, 2011 | Latest News Researchers Follow Pesticides’ Migration To The Arctic Persistent Pollutants: Four-month cruise finds traces of endosulfan and five other widely used pesticides By Naomi Lubick Department: Science & Technology Keywords: pesticides, endosulfan, trifluralin, Arctic [+]Enlarge Arctic Pollutants Researchers spent four months aboard the ice-breaker R/V Xuelong measuring pesticide levels in water and air. Credit: Polar Research Institute of China, courtesy [...]

INDIA’S “PUBLIC SECTOR INDIGENOUS GM COTTON” A SCIENTIFIC FRAUD:   Coalition for a GM-Free India demands immediate stopping of all public sector transgenic research and an independent enquiry and action against fraudulent scientists. New Delhi, December 30, 2011: 2011 ends with a big blot to the Indian scientific community, as was the case in 2010 [...]