Mark Van Horn, director of the student farm at the University of California, is nearly lost as he walks through a yellow cloud of wild sunflowers around the edge of a field of tomatoes and sweet corn.

REFINED TECHNIQUES The Swanton Berry Farm in California.

An apex committee headed by the Chief Minister, Mr Pawan Chamling, has been constituted to oversee the implementation of organic farming programmes in Sikkim.

The other members of the committee are the Agriculture Minister, the Rural Development Minister, the Chief Secretary, the Development Commissioner, the Finance Secretary and the Agriculture Secretary.

The committee has been designated

It's fast catching on -- organic farm tourism is the latest value addition rural tourism has achieved across the globe THE ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE RUSTIC SELFCATERING COT- TAGES AND HOME-COOKED, ORGANIC FOOD

The frescoed havelis of Nawalgarh, the native land of the Sekhawat Rajputs in Rajasthan, once drew tourists from France and Italy -places known for magnificent art forms.

Carambolim Panchayat has decided to set up a Vermi Composting unit in the village.
According to sources in panchayat, about 8,000 sq mtrs of land has been identified for setting up the unit in the jurisdiction of Carambolim Panchayat.

Indronil Roychowdhury

Kolkata: Retail marketing in agriculture may still be out of bounds in West Bengal but try bio-fertiliser, bio-seeds and organic fertiliser for investment

Horticulture official shows the right way of cultivation

A BOUNTY:Organically-grown amla at a homestead garden in Palayamkotti.

TIRUNELVELI: A hybrid variety of Amla, NA-4 (Kanchan), planted in a homestead garden nine years ago, is continuously giving higher yield, thanks to organic farming techniques.

About 25 kg of fruits have been harvested in the second phase at an interval of just se