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.

New Delhi Despite the relevant parliamentary standing committee’s unequivocal ‘No’ to government acquiring land for projects involving private money, Jairam Ramesh’s rural development ministry plans to seek the Cabinet’s nod for a proposal to allow such acquisition with caveats: The project should be in “public interest”; 80% of affected families must give their consent; and post-acquisition, land ownership must rest with the government.

The move — which aims to make more land available for projects in a country where public funds don’t match investment needs — is likely to be hailed by industry as “pragmatic”

New Delhi With the grain stocks held with Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state government owned agencies crossing a record level, the food ministry has proposed additional allocation of grain to BPL and APL families for dealing with storage crunch.

Under the proposal sent to finance ministry, the food ministry has proposed to hike grain allocation for the estimated 18 crore APL families to 15 kg per month from prevailing 10 kg per month. This will result in excess grains allocation of 6.5 million tonne.

New Delhi As part of its plan to create two-million-tonne-capacity silos for storing grain across the country, the government has approved creation of silos in 10 states with the capacities ranging from 4 lakh tonne to 50,000 tonne.

The state-level committees on silos are identifying suitable locations, which would be built via the private-public-partnership mode. Food minister KV Thomas said that while 4-lakh-tonne-capacity silos would be built in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh would get silos with a capacity 3.5 lakh tonne. Haryana and UP would get silos with 3-lakh-tonne capacity each.

New Delhi Notwithstanding apprehensions expressed by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on the proposal of giving grain as part payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, food minister KV Thomas on Sunday continued to support the idea. Thomas said, “There is enough surplus grain to be given to poor families.”

In a recent letter to the Jairam Ramesh, Thomas had made the proposal, which he said would also help ease the problems of excess foodgrain stocks for the government.

Madhya Pradesh is set for a comprehensive policy for promotion of organic method of farming through restoration of deteriorating soil health.

The central Indian state's agriculture sector, which has been growing at an annual rate of 9% over the last three years and is expected to touch the double-digit mark, has emerged as the second biggest producer of wheat in the country and also the largest producer of soyabean.

New Delhi A report on ‘State of Indian Agriculture 2011-12’, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, has called for reforms to ensure that the sector grows in tandem with the overall GDP of the country. The report says that “achieving an 8-9% rate of growth in the overall GDP may not deliver much in terms of poverty reduction unless agricultural growth accelerates”.

New Delhi: The government has asked states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar to set up grain procuring infrastructure to increase lifting from the farmers so that r

New Delhi The 2012-13 Budget may not have to provide as big a jump in the food subsidy bill as expected earlier.

New Delhi The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) will set up an expert committee to look into patent violation issues concerning Bikaneri Narma, which was claimed to be the country’s first indigenous public sector-bred Bt cotton (genetically modified) seed variety.