The Financial Express

Tomatoes Brought By farmers to an open auction market at Narayangaon along the Pune-Nashik highway are finding finding new markets in Dubai. According to traders, at least one lakh tonne of tomatoes have been exported from Narayangaon alone to Dubai this season.

Down To Earth

Under water scarce conditions created in laboratory, the transgenic rice performed better than their unmodified counterparts A group of Indian, Chinese, and Canadian scientists have developed transgenic rice that gives high yields even under severe water deficit.

Bloomberg Quint

The recommendation follows the government’s rejection in 2010 of a GM Brinjal crop developed by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. A government panel said last year that the GM oilseed poses no risk to humans. It is highly unlikely to invade natural ecosystems and poses negligible risk to agriculture productivity, the panel had said in a document posted to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s website.

India Times

Bill Gates may be known as the founder of Microsoft, but the man has had enough experience through his career and philanthropy to comment on aspects of technology and its impact, especially when it comes to the survival and progress of the human race. So when he has a thing or two to say about future Earth, you’d best be listening.

Livemint The Hindu The New Indian Express Bloomberg Quint WN New Bytes

India’s regulator for transgenic products approved the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard on Thursday, paving the way for a new technology for farmers. If approved by the environment ministry, GM mustard will be the first food crop to be allowed in India after Bt cotton was commercially released 15 years ago.

The Indian Express

The country’s biotechnology regulator has approved the environmental release and cultivation by farmers of DMH-11, a genetically modified (GM) hybrid mustard developed by scientists at Delhi University. The green signal from the genetic engineering appraisal committee (GEAC) may not, however, amount to much. We know how the same GEAC’s go-ahead for the commercial release of Bt brinjal was overturned in February 2010 by the then Environment Minister — who assumed the role of regulator and ordered a moratorium on the transgenic vegetable’s cultivation. One can only hope that the current minister, Anil Madhav Dave, will not do a Jairam Ramesh, though the pressure may not be any less, with the opposition this time coming primarily from ...

Inc 42

Agri startup Utkal Tubers has raised $4.6 Mn (INR 30 Cr) from CapAleph Indian Millennium SME Fund and Zephyr Peacock India Fund. The early-stage startup, a potato seeds company, completed a year of operation in March 2017, producing 1,000 tonnes of potato seeds last year. This year it is targeting 5,000 tonnes. The startup proposes to scale up the availability of local varieties through facilities that it has set up in Karnataka. It is also in the process of setting up facilities in Odisha, Gujarat, and Punjab.

The Economic Times

India will promote big private investments in deep sea fishing and take foreign technological support to realise the full potential of the sector, which supports an estimated four million fishermen and their family members and contributes Rs 65,000 crore annually to the economy. Billed as the roadmap for a ‘Blue Revolution’, the new national policy on marine fisheries lays emphasis on bringing sustainable utilisation of the fisheries’ wealth from marine and other aquatic resourc ..

Daily O

Commenting on five-year plans way back in 1958 in his book, The Two Plans: Promises, Performances and Prospects, Jana Sangh ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay doubted whether centralised economic planning can be concordant with democracy and the need of essentialising socialist economy with planning. While scrutinising the relation between annual budget and plans covering a definite period, he was of the opinion that real solution to Indian problem may hardly be sought in political and economy ethos developed in West. He advocated a new process of thought in consonance with Indian environment.

The Times of India 

The Union ministry of earth sciences on Friday launched “Safar-Air”, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Reaserch (SAFAR) for Ahmedabad city, fourth city in the country after Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to get Safar. Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union minister for science and technology and earth sciences launched Safar-Ahmedabad on Friday. Not only will Safar-Ahmedabad be available on the web, but an Android version was also launched.

Down To Earth

In Indonesia, smallholder farmers are not only preserving the country’s food biodiversity but earning well for themselves by exporting their traditional indigenous products to the world. They have found the answer to agrarian crises by resorting to ancient knowledge and going back to the past. Helianti Hilman—the CEO and Founder of JAVARA Indigenous Indonesia—had founded the organisation in 2009 with an objective of preserving and promoting Indonesia’s food biodiversity, indigenous wisdom and spiritualism. It works with more than 52,000 small-scale farmers across the Indonesian archipelago to discover forgotten food biodiversity and traditional techniques and help them benefit from both local and international market opportunities.

DNA

Vast tracts of land previously considered barren are actually covered by forests “hiding in plain sight”, scientists said on Friday, a discovery that could help the fight against climate change and desertification. An international team of researchers led by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) used new technology to analyse high-resolution images from Google Earth and map forest coverage in drylands worldwide.

Business Standard

IFFCO, world’s largest fertiliser cooperative federation with over 40,000 member cooperatives, has announced its plans to garner massive cooperative market via creation of a digital platform. “Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited has made an ambitious plan to achieve Fertilisers’ Marketing target of 15 million tonnes per annum by 2020,” said IFFCO Managing Director and CEO Dr U.S. Awasthi.