SALEPUR: Residents in the western part of Cuttack district are spending sleepless nights due to rising elephant menace in the region. Besides damaging crops, the animals have been injuring people, particularly in Athagarh and Gurudijhatia region.

Farmers lost some 1.56 lakh tonnes of Boro rice in the haor areas because of the recent flash floods, said Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury yesterday.

In a bid to help offset the losses, the government has allocated Tk 26 crore to encourage farmers to grow high-yielding rice during the current Aus season by providing them with certain amount of fertiliser for free.

AT FIRST, the sight from the helicopter soaring above the Cuttaburra Channels, in outback New South Wales (NSW), seems hard to believe. After a decade of drought, said to be Australia

The Annual Plan outlay for Manipur for 2010-11 was on Wednesday finalised at Rs. 2,600 crore at a meeting here between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury Tuesday said the government would cautiously introduce gene technology based crops varieties in the country in order to increase food production for attaining food security.
She urged the private sector entrepreneurs for coming up with big investments in gene technology based seeds business for benefiting them side by side helping the farmers increase fa

The present government has always striven for making agriculture competitive and profitable through enhanced crop production on sustainable basis both at farm and country level.

A senior officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture highlighting major initiatives and achievements during current financial year (2009-10) told APP that the present government decided to review National agricult