The Hindu

Swaminathan was speaking at a consultation on climate change and food security on Monday at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, of which he is founder. It was part of a project, called Clima Adapt, which is being supported by the Norwegian Embassy in India. The programme was also attended by Jon Georg Dale, Norway’s Minister for Agriculture and Food.

The Times of India

Winter rains in the region last night triggered concerns about the yield and production of chickpeas or chana and pulses crop. Untimely rains during the maturity period of crop hit the productivity and quality.

Business Standard

Precision in farm operations is the mantra for more efficient farming to get higher production at lower costs. This is vital also to raise farmers’ income and make their produce competitive in the domestic and export markets. For this, more and more farm chores need to be mechanised as manual operations usually fall short on perfection. Also, agricultural tools and machines need to be designed and manufactured with precision angle in view.

Orissa Diary

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh today spoke about National Farmer Policy of the Union Government and said that the objective of this policy is to accelerate agricultural output, develop infrastructural facilities in the villages, promote value addition, expedite the growth of agro-business, create employment in the rural areas, ensuring better livelihood status of the farmers and agriculture workers and their families, discourage migration to urban areas and face the challenges emerging out of economic liberalization and globalization.

The Financial Express

After a fall of 20% witnessed in the last fiscal, India’s farm and processed food exports are set to register a turnaround by the end of current financial year despite a sharp fall in shipment of basmati rice, which has share of 20% of total exports basket.

The Times of India

Collaboration in agriculture and food security is crucial to deal with climate change, said Jon Georg Dale, minister for agriculture and food security, Norway. “Food security is top of the global agenda and the sustainable development goals. Agriculture must be at the heart of development and we must use water and other resources productively,” said Georg Dale, while speaking on climate change at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in the city on Monday.

Live Mint

While demonetisation’s negative impact on the Indian economy is a widely accepted fact, there is not much clarity on how this has affected different sectors of the economy. If first advanced estimates for Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices are to be believed, industry is going to suffer the biggest setback in terms of growth, while agriculture is likely to come out with flying colours. In fact, agriculture is the only sector, which is expected to improve its performance in the second half of the ongoing fiscal year over the first half.

The Quint

For Hira Kanjarya, a 17-hour day is the norm as she gets up before dawn to cook for her five children, do the washing, milk her two buffalos, and also run the family’s cotton farm. Kanjarya, 36, is one of a growing number of women being trained to take charge of some of the millions of small holder farms across India where about 70 percent of agricultural work is done by women, but with little recognition of their input.

The Hindu Business Line

Budget 2017 announced an allocation of ₹48,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. While this is the highest allocation ever to be made under the scheme, it is just ₹501 crore more than the actual spending for 2016-17.

Business Standard

B Thiagarajan, joint managing director at Blue Star and chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s national committee on state-level coordination in agriculture, extolls the benefit to farmers and the rural economy from contract farming.

Business Standard

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said rural development holds the key for the growth of Indian economy and stressed that he has laid emphasis on the development of villages in the Budget so as to put the country among developed nations. Addressing a gathering at Karnali village which he has adopted under the ‘Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna’ as an MP from Gujarat in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley asserted that Indian economy is the fastest growing in the world.

Bloomberg Quint

With a name whose meaning refers to ‘forest,’ Jharkhand’s 23 lakh hectares of tree cover often overshadow the state’s sizeable tracts of agricultural land. More than 47 percent of Jharkhand’s almost 80 lakh hectares is cultivable. A temperate climate and ambitious growth-focused government roadmap make the state an ideal place to invest in the food and agriculture sectors.

The Economic Times

Decades after farmers on India’s plains flocked to the “Green Revolution”, reliant on chemical fertilisers to drive agricultural growth, the northeast Himalayan state of Sikkim is trying its luck with organic farming – a pull for young, green-minded entrepreneurs who could help get the produce to market.