Maharashtra gets Rs 1,207 crore aid to tackle drought

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) of the Central government has approved Rs 1,207 crore as aid to Maharashtra for drought relief work. Out of this amount, Rs 807.84 crore has been approved for compensation for crop loss in the Rabi crop season of 2012-13, while Rs 400 crore has been allocated for saving dying orchards in the state.

Need to scale up power availability in farms up to 2kw/ha: Sharad Pawar

The Union minister for agriculture, Sharad Pawar, on Wednesday informed the parliamentary consultative committee that farm power availability in the country needs to be scaled up to 2 kw/ha by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan. He said that without achieving this power availability it wasn’t possible to meet the projected demand of 280 million tonnes of food grains by 2020-21.

GoM clears Land Acquisition Bill

A ministerial panel chaired by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has cleared the controversial Land Acquisition Bill. The draft report will now be sent to the Cabinet for approval. “We succeeded in bringing some understanding on issues on which there were different views,” said Pawar after the meeting on October 16.

Can President Mukherjee redress this farmer’s grievance?

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, who will be in Bihar for two days starting October 3, may face some embarrassing moments during his maiden v

Maharashtra bans Bt cotton seeds of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech

After months of dithering, Maharashtra has finally banned Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB) from carrying out any trade in cotton seed in the state. MMB is a joint venture of Mahyco (a Maharashtra-based hybrid seed company), the Maharashtra government and Monsanto Holdings Pvt Ltd, a US-based company. Mahyco is also a key distributor of Bt cotton seeds in the country.

Government rolls back ban on cotton exports

The desperation of farmers

Farmers are caught in a vicious circle of problems that could spell the doom for agriculture but does Sharad Pawar or anyone else care?

India softens its stand on endosulfan

Day 5: April 29 The last day of the Stockholm Convention, ushered some good news for all those crusading against endosulfan in India. Endosulfan has finally been brought under the Annex A of the Stockholm Convention, which means that Endosulfan should be banned globally.

Endosulfan: meet in Geneva begins, India still in denial

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva  

Lavasa’s journey downhill

Lavasa is called a hill station but does not offer the cool comfort of one. In May and June temperatures touch nearly 40°C— not an ideal summer getaway. In nearby Mahabaleshwar, temperatures rarely cross 35°C.