AgribusinessThe State of the FPO Sector 2026 report finds 91% of producer companies thinly capitalised, women-led groups short of credit, and calls for restoring a lapsed tax exemption and building federations.
FisheriesAt a consultation in Kochi on India's National Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries, fishers called for disaster preparedness, income support on days lost to bad weather and recognition of women as fishers.
Built under licence from Canada's Clean Seed Technologies, the five-row MaxSeeder sows rice, wheat, soybean, maize and cotton into crop residue, places urea below the seed and runs on a 35 HP tractor.
EnvironmentA PNAS study by the Potsdam Institute and Kiel University finds that less diverse meadows and pastures would take up less carbon and yield less forage, with drops of up to 50% in places such as India and Paraguay.
FruitsNashik received only 34.3% of its normal monsoon rain. Vineyards may survive to the December-January harvest on stored water, growers say, but could die in 2027, while some onion farmers may plant more.
EnvironmentA month of underwater recordings in the tidal Rupnarayan river found dolphin clicks peaked at 4-6 am and 6-8 pm and at water levels of 1.5-2 metres, findings that could change how surveys are timed.
Citing ICAR's analysis of 242,000 soil samples and a national survey that found 39% of soils short of zinc, the writer argues that fixing soil micronutrients is the start of better nutrition for crops, livestock and people.
Rain, wind and storms during the kharif harvest have flattened standing paddy and drenched grain stored in the open in north India; IMD forecasts more rain and strong winds on 12-13 October.
Siba Prasad Mohanty, managing director of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan, argues India must secure urea's feedstock, through green ammonia at Barauni and coal gasification at Sindri, not only its output.
CropsKarnataka's second memorandum puts losses in 177 of its 217 drought-hit taluks at close to Rs 46,000 crore; the state expects the total to reach Rs 50,000-60,000 crore.
AgribusinessIndia's 1.7-million-tonne urea tender, watched as a benchmark for world prices, cleared at softer levels after a year in which import prices swung from $959 a tonne to about $390.
AgribusinessBrokerages expect sharp profit falls at India's listed crop protection companies for July to September, after the weakest monsoon since 2015 cut pesticide demand while raw material, freight and currency costs stayed high.
Daily lifeWhole cumin may be mixed with grass seed and charcoal dust, and ground cumin with sawdust or bran. Your palm, a glass plate and a glass of water can give an early hint, though none of these tests is conclusive.
EnvironmentEnvironmentalists are alarmed that trees have been wrapped from crown to base in LED chains. A Delhi University study found such lighting harms nocturnal animals and birds, and the Bombay High Court has barred lights on trees.
EnvironmentOne of a herd of about 45 elephants gave birth in a field in the Kalaikunda range of the Kharagpur forest division; the mother waited until dawn, when the calf could stand, and led it into the forest.
AgrotechUnder India's Digital Agriculture Mission, each farmer's identity, land and crop records are being linked to a 12-digit Unique Farmer ID so that subsidies, insurance and crop payments go straight to genuine farmers' bank accounts.
FisheriesScientists in Mumbai raised olive barb (Puntius sarana) brooders in captivity, induced spawning with hormones and reared larvae indoors, a full seed-production package for a small indigenous fish.
CropsBased on 1,622 on-farm trials from 2014 to 2024, ICAR's Directorate of Weed Research puts average yield loss to weeds at 13.43%, down from about 25% in its 2018 estimate, thanks to better weed-control options.
CropsUnder the MAHARISHI initiative, early- and mid-career researchers will train at ICAR-IIMR in Hyderabad from December in genomics-led breeding, phenotyping, biofortification and the millet value chain.
CropsThe edible oil industry body SEA, AWL Agri Business, Solidaridad and Bharatkhand Foundation will run a five-year programme in Bundi, Tonk and Jhalawar to improve soil health, water and input use in mustard.
EnvironmentThe Central Asian Conservation Network's hub adds portals for reporting bird collisions with power lines and turbines and for recording ringed and tagged birds along a route used by more than 600 species.
CropsThe early-maturing sugarcane variety CoS.23232, released in September, sold out its first online allocation of single-bud planting material within minutes, and the state's cane research council is speeding up multiplication with tissue culture.
HealthIndia's food regulator FSSAI has ordered a batch of Everest cumin powder, sampled at a Goa resort, off the market for pesticide residues above the limit; its guidelines include simple home tests for adulteration.
EnvironmentWriting in Down To Earth, Ranjan Panda says the early arrival of winter birds at Odisha's Chilika lake should be read alongside a warming, less predictable lake and Arctic, and calls for fisherfolk to help monitor it.
CropsUSDA's office in New Delhi now expects India to make 29.5 million tonnes of sugar in 2026-27, down from 33.6 million, as a rainfall deficit, waterlogging and red borer cut cane yields and sugar recovery.
OpinionIn a Krishi Jagran column, Tarun Shridhar says Northeast India could feed itself with fish and export ornamental species if cold storage, credit, cage culture and market links were built at district level.
EnvironmentA community weather network in Kerala's Wayanad recorded an average 29.2°C in early September, 1.9°C above the three previous years, raising worries for coffee, pepper, arecanut and paddy farmers.
AgrotechThe Global Food Tech Awards APAC shortlist names five young companies from South Korea, India, Taiwan and Australia working on blockchain traceability, sprouted millet flour, upcycled produce and AI regulatory checks.
CropsThe CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology held its first scientist-farmer meet at its Bommaipalli campus, handing out climate-resilient, high-yielding rice developed with ICAR-IIRR.
CropsAt a field day at ICAR-RCER's Sabajpura farm near Patna, Bihar's agriculture principal secretary Narmadeshwar Lal promised state support to spread raised-and-sunken beds, direct-seeded rice, micro-irrigation and integrated crop-fish systems.
EnvironmentICAR-IISWC's Chandigarh centre has released Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, a dual-purpose farm pond and a decision support app for designing spurs, gabion walls and check dams, aimed at the Shivalik hills.
AgribusinessNABVENTURES, NABARD's venture capital arm, has reached a Rs 450 crore first close for Fund II, which targets Rs 1,500 crore for early- and growth-stage agritech, food, rural fintech, climate and logistics companies.
Daily lifeCrisil Intelligence says a home-cooked vegetarian thali cost 10% more in September than a year earlier and a non-vegetarian thali 6% more, driven by onions, rice, edible oil and cooking gas, with onion prices likely to stay high into mid-October.
HealthAn ongoing doctoral study at MIT World Peace University detected fibres, fragments and pellets in freshwater fish entering Pune, estimating that a regular eater could ingest 93,600-124,800 particles over 50 years; detailed polymer analysis is still under way.
CropsA study backed by the seed industry finds unapproved HTBt cotton on 65-72 lakh acres in Kharif 2025-26, 24-30% of India's cotton area, with an informal seed market worth about Rs 1,500 crore and many samples carrying a gene never approved in India.
CropsIndia's monsoon ended 13% below normal, milder than 1987 or 2002, but Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have declared drought in hundreds of taluks and mandals, with 70.6% of the country dry or in drought, Down To Earth reports.
