After almost a decade, the Jharkhand state seed subcommittee released nine high-yielding varieties of rice, groundnut, soya bean, sugarcane and chickpea crops, following a notification by the Gover

The Centre on Friday revised its foodgrains production estimate upwards by 5.22 million tonnes for 2012-13 over earlier expectation on account of higher output of rice, wheat and coarse cereals.

The total foodgrains output is now estimated at 255.36 million tonnes with wheat production pegged at 93.62 million tonnes and rice at 104.22 million tonnes.

Though copious rains in the last few weeks helped Andhra Pradesh achieve averages in rainfall, the distribution of rainfall is not uniform.

The Union ministry of food has recommended continuing the subsidy for edible oil distribution, given the rising trend in prices and anticipated shortfall in final production in the kharif season.

The subsidy scheme under the public distribution system involves distributing edible oil at Rs 15 per kg to individual states. The scheme is to end in September.

New Delhi In the shadow of the monsoon deficit, the Union agriculture ministry has drafted a contingency plan for states that have received scanty rainfall, focussing on alternative or short-duration crops.

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) blueprint includes a shift, wherever possible, to alternative crops like bajra, groundnut, pigeon peas from water-intensive maize, cotton and paddy. State-specific plans have been prepared for parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana, sources said.

2,407 out of 2,449 tanks are completely dry and wells have very little water

With the dry spell continuing in the district and the storage level in the major reservoirs going down alarmingly due to poor precipitation in the catchment areas, farmers have appealed to the State Government to declare Tirunelveli as ‘drought-hit district’ and provide adequate relief to save the agriculturists. Making this appeal in the monthly farmers’ grievance day meeting held at the Collectorate on Friday, R. Kasamuthu, secretary, Tirunelveli District Farmers’ Association, said 2,407 of the 2,449 irrigation tanks in the district were bone-dry while the wells had water sufficient for only 15 to 20 minutes pumping.

JAIPUR: With the monsoon approaching and farmers gearing up to sow their next crop, the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) on Tuesday directed all officials concerned to keep a strict vigil during a review meeting of the ring road project.

A senior official present in the meeting said as the clouds of uncertainty continue to hover over the project, the JDA fears that even those farmers who had surrendered their lands have started tilling them and are preparing to sow seeds this monsoon.

JAIPUR: With monsoon approaching and farmers gearing up to sow the next crop, the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) has a big challenge ahead to take possession of remaining acquired land for the ring road project.

As the clouds of uncertainty continue to hover over the project, even those farmers who had surrendered their lands are preparing to sow groundnut and bajra after rain this monsoon.