India has toppled the us to become the second largest producer of cotton, after China, states the cotton fiscal of 2006-2007. Statistics also show that by October-end, the annual cotton farmers'

in october 2006, 150 farmers of Yellur village in Udupi district of Karnataka lost 195 hectares (ha) of land. According to Janajagrithi Samiti, a local ngo, the Udupi tehsildar K Muralidhar

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hailstorm in most farming areas of Manipur in October took farmers, eagerly awaiting the harvest, by surprise. It left standing crops damaged. Imphal East, Bishenpur, Chandel, Senapati, Tamenglong, Thoubal and Ukhrul districts reported hailstorms between October 21 to 24, 2006.

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.

• Notified varieties are developed and tested through multi-location trials by the All India Coordinated Crop Improvement Programme. If the varieties are found to be superior, the Central Seed Committee (CSC) releases them through notification in the official gazette
• Nucleus seeds are the pure genetic material of a notified variety produced by a breeder. These are multiplied into breeder seeds