Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Monday said that the State Government was committed to protect the interests of the fruit growers and deliver them best of the services to improve the quality and q

The Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI) here has launched a concerted effort to tackle the menace of jhum cultivation in the region.

The Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and the Farm Advisory Service Scheme (FASS), Sangrur, organised a convention on "Alternative cropping systems to rice-wheat in saving of irrigation water' at Majhi village near Bhawanigarh, under the leadership of Dr Mandeep Singh, district extension specialist, Sangrur, yesterday. Dr Nachhattar Singh Malhi, director, Extension Education, PAU, was the chief guest. Dr Malhi called upon the farmers to reduce area under paddy to save Punjab from becoming a desert. He stressed on timely transplanting of paddy and cultivation of varieties especially PAU-201 and PR-118 to check receding underground water table. He suggested sowing of water-saving crops like groundnut, Bt cotton and maize etc as their irrigation requirement was less compared to paddy. He also motivated farmers to launch village-wise campaign for the eradication of weeds so that mealy bug could not harm cotton crop during the next kharif season. Dr Krishan Kumar Vashist, senior agronomist, PAU, said central Punjab with 400-800 mm rainfall and coarse textured soils was not fit for paddy cultivation. The local population was not rice eating. The alternative cropping systems to rice-wheat, therefore, could play a great role in saving water by replacing the area under paddy, he added. ADC (Development) Harnek Singh laid emphasis on kitchen gardening model and adoption of subsidiary occupations by farmers to augment farm income. Presiding over the function, Dr U.S. Walia, head, Department of Agronomy, PAU, stressed on diversification by bringing more area under pulses and oilseeds. Dr A.S. Sohi, Dr Surjeet Singh, Dr G.S. Rattan, Dr T.S. Dhillon, and Dr Jagdish Grover, deputy director, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kherri, also spoke. The FASS and the KVK held an exhibition for the farmers.

The cost of making Amirta karaisal for an acre comes to Rs. 5-8 Cost-effective concoction: Ms. Rajareega mixing the karaisal at her farm at Muthupatti in Tamil Nadu When the application of even some of the best technologies fails to yield a good harvest, farmers tend to either sell their land or borrow money for planting a second crop. With successive failures and mounting debts, agricultural activity comes to a grinding halt. In extreme cases some poor farmers go to the extreme of committing suicide to escape from problems. Immediate need

The reported move by the government, to prepare for a virtually across-the-board waiver of bad or rescheduled agricultural loans, is imprudent in every way. Most importantly, it may end up crippling the agricultural credit system, which is what happened once earlier with the then deputy prime minister, Devi Lal's, loan waiver of 1990. The cooperative credit sector has still not fully recovered from that blow. Apart from turning cooperative credit banks sick, it made even the commercial banking sector wary of disbursing crop loans for a long time after that ill-conceived move.

Hariyali Kisan Bazaars are helping transform rural India by providing all manner of services to farmers. While the retail revolution in urban areas is going ahead at its own pace, the retailing in rural areas is also getting modernised in a unique manner to cater exclusively to the wide-ranging needs of customer-farmers. The trend setter in this case has been the "Hariyali Kisan Bazaar' chain launched by the DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) in 2002-03 with a well-conceived model of value-added retailing.

there has been a long-standing debate on whether organic agriculture can ensure global food security. Even some advocates of organic are not sure about this. A recent study claims organic farming