Business Standard

Lauding ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute for its efforts in enhancing the economic status of farmers across the country by evolving high-yielding sugarcane varieties, he urged the scientists to focus on technologies to increase productivity with less production costs.

The Wire

Hundreds like Bhullar line up at the market at Talwandi Sabo, which has been holding a mirror to the state of agricultural affairs in Punjab for the last two decades. First started in 1989, the tractor mandi picked up business only around late 1990s. This was the period when government, through different policy measures, started to withdraw many agricultural subsidies, leaving agriculturalists completely unprotected from the market variables.

The New Indian Express

The decision was taken after National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) had advised all the district cooperative banks and the state cooperative banks to complete the process of waiver of interest and credit the interest amount to the farmers’ short-term loan accounts by Wednesday. Hence, farmers may approach the primary agricultural cooperative societies concerned to avail the benefit of interest waiver announced by the Centre, the communique said.

The Hindu

The yasangi [earlier called rabi] activity which was slow till the Sankranti festival started picking up in the last few days and farmers are busy with paddy transplantations in the command area of major and medium irrigation projects and also under bore-wells.

WebIndia123

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh said there is a need to optimize the resources’ use efficiency while keeping the farmers’ interest foremost in research programmes. He was addressing the plenary session of ninth Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference at Berlin, Germany yesterday. In his address, Mr Singh said water is certainly the most critical resource for agriculture, gaining primacy even on other important inputs like soil.The use of water for agriculture and non-agricultural purposes, inefficient irrigation practices, injudicious use of pesticides, poor conservation infrastructure, and lack of governance have lead to increasing water scarcity and pollution worldwide.

The New Indian Express

Bringing major relief to the state’s farming sector, Kerala State Cooperative Bank Ltd has decided to waive the interest on short-term loans availed by farmers during April-September last year.