Shimla: The growing of flowers is no more the domain of plain areas only. The hilly State of Himachal Pradesh has been bustling with the fragrance of flowers and the State has emerged as a pioneer in the cultivation of flowers during the last about a decade. It is quite amazing to note that in [...]

Sant Bahadur writes: With a large number of people living on subsistence level of income, the government has to safeguard their interest by ensuring availability of food grains at an affordable price. Success of any policy or programme to this effect depends on growth in agriculture production and procurement of wheat and rice, the main [...]

Nahan: In view of the commonwealth games 2010 the industrial houses are accepting a big market for their product promotion at international level. On the same lines the Himachal, Paonta Sahib based food processing industry and export house Himalaya International Private Limited (HIL) has decided to install 100 food carts in the national capital till [...]

New Delhi: The world–renowned scientist Dr. M.S.Swaminathan has stressed the need to set up a national regulatory body to mitigate the anxiety caused by genetically modified agricultural produce. He was chairing the plenary session on ‘Food and Nutritional security’ held as part of the 97th Indian Science Congress at Thiruvanathapuram.
Dr. Swaminathan said that the proposed [...]

This year’s insufficient Monsoon has forced people to pay more attention to agriculture and food security, but these have already been a very high priority for the Government. While the focus presently is on saving the standing crops and trying to maximize the production of winter crops, long-term strategies remain very important. These strategies have [...]

Alka Pande, CNS writes: THE crisis of sugarcane in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in the current season, has forced the sugar mills as well as the government authorities to contemplate on ways and measures for enhancing the production of sugarcane crop as well as sugar, in the state.
All stake holders including the farmers, [...]

Manish Desai writes: Few people have quietly changed the world for the better more than this rural lad from the mid-western state of Iowa in the United States.  The man in focus is Norman Borlaug, the Father of the ‘Green Revolution’, who died on Saturday, (September 12, 2009) at age 95. Norman Borlaug spent most of [...]

Sanjay Kumar writes: The Farmers Participatory Action Research Programme (FPARP) has been initiated by the Ministry of Water Resources during 2007-08 kharif seasons onwards in the irrigated land of arid, semi-arid, hilly and coastal areas of the country with a view to facilitate demonstration of technologies for achieving the goal of “More crop and income [...]

Agriculture continues to be the main stay for providing food, nutrition and livelihood security to large and growing population of the country. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)/ Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through its vast network of 97 research institutes including 4 ICAR institutes as deemed to be Universities, 46 Agricultural [...]

New Delhi: As per the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee, the Government of India has approved a Revival Package for Short Term Cooperative Credit Structure (STCCS). Revival Package envisages an out lay of Rs. 13,597 crore for recapitalization of STCCS.
An amount of Rs.6072.71 crore has been released by NABARD as Government of India share for [...]

India’s huge bio-diversity and variety of agro-climatic conditions sets the stage for variety of agricultural products as well as uniqueness on account of local resources and skill set, especially in rural sector.  Indian farmers and rural artisans have diverse expertise to produce textile, handicrafts and other traditional products. e.g. Banarasi Sari and Litchi ofMuzaffarpur.  Now, what is a matter of [...]

New Delhi: Himachal work plan for Agriculture for the year 2009-10 has been fixed at rupees 22.22 crore.
Director Agriculture J.C.  Rana told that under the work plan, integrated  cereal development programmes for wheat, integrated cereal development programme for pulses and oilseed, scheme for farm mechanism, scheme for  integrated nutrients and pest management, national watershed development  project for [...]

The tea industry in India is about 179 years old. India being the largest producer as well as the largest consumer of black tea in the world, tea has become one of the most important commercial crops of the country. The commercial production of tea started in India in the late 1830s, before which, the [...]

Shimla: A group of forty farmers from Sirmour and Mandi districts of Himachal Pradesh is on a six day exposure visit (24th February 2009 to 1st March 2009) to the States of Uttarakhand and Haryana. During their visit to the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun Jagdish Kishwan, IFS, Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and [...]