Insect behavior is largely decided by farming practices. Both plants and insects are mutually dependant. While plants provide food to insects, insects provide the necessary ecological services to the plant. Farmers therefore need to manage cropping as a part of a larger ecosystem management. This requires deeper understanding of the relationships of various living forms in an ecosystem.
The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Vellore has adopted a cluster approach in undertaking various works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in order to enable more villagers to get employment, according to N. Srinivasan, Project Officer of the DRDA.
Talking to newspersons at the Alangulam irrigation tank in Melappulam village panchayat in Arcot panchayat union where the work of deepening of the tank under MGNREGS was under progress on Wednesday, Mr. Srinivasan said that if there are more than 200 workers in a village panchayat, a new cluster would be started, comprising workers from a group of habitations. Under this approach,
Kolar, Bangarpet, Srinivaspur among 70 drought-hit taluks in the State
The State government has declared Kolar, Malur and Bangarpet taluks drought-hit.
As per the data released by the Ministry of Agriculture here on Friday, the area under rice cultivation is 260.36 lakh hectares against 244.79 lakh hectares sown this time last year. Sown area has increased in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. However, it is lower in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjabdue to insufficient rain.
Farmers would also be trained in production of quality seeds. The training modules would cover selection of varieties, seasonal application of bio-fertilizers, micro-nutrients and improved seed production technologies.
An agricultural research institute in India has developed hybrid varieties of pigeon pea (arhar), which promise to significantly raise output and cut import dependence for the produce.
Imagine eating groundnut that has the qualities of tomato and rice, and toor dal that has the traits of maize! As Hyderabad joins the race to produce genetically engineered food crops, moongphali will soon carry the goodness of tamatar and rice, while toor dal gets a boost with the nutritional value of bhutta or corn. And the chana dal crop will thrive even in severe drought conditions.
