Investment gurus such as Jim Rogers saw it coming as early as 1999. Prices of agri-commodities are soaring in the face of sustained uptick in global demand and stagnating production. Notwithstanding the scorching economic growth in India, Indian agriculture is painfully ambling along at around 2 per cent due to decades of under-investment. That, however, is changing.

THE first thing to note about the Mulkanoor cooperative is that it is an exception, not the rule. Given the otherwise dismal state of the cooperative movement in India, how many cooperative societies can boast of a turnover in excess of Rs 55 crore? Or have one of its members go on to become the prime minister of the country (P V Narasimha Rao, in this case)? Or not have a single defaulter on the roll of its hundreds of borrowers, with total lending in a year exceeding Rs 20 crore? Or have operations ranging from dairies to a modern rice mill.

It's not routine for organic to get a bad press. But when quixotic officials turn it into an article of faith without doing the homework, the repercussions can be seriously debilitating. Take the

scientists at the Directorate of Oilseed Research (dor), Hyderabad, have developed the world's first microbial insecticide in solid form. According to D M Hegde, project director, dor, "The