CropsRapeseed and mustard covered 2.05 million hectares by 30 October against 3.807 million a year earlier, and total rabi sowing was 43.5 percent behind, though groundnut acreage rose more than 62 percent.
CropsRajasthan declared drought in 14 districts and Gujarat in four, with Gujarat paying Rs 8,500 a hectare to farmers whose crops failed and selling fodder at Rs 2 a kg.
CropsJaisalmer got half its normal monsoon rain, fodder prices have more than doubled, 216 of the state's 693 dams are empty and Jodhpur-zone reservoirs hold 15.72% of capacity, yet no drought has been declared.
CropsRajasthan's first estimates put bajra at 4.94 million tonnes and guar at 1.79 million, both down, while groundnut climbs to 2.82 million tonnes in better-watered pockets.
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.
FruitsNihal Singh, a former State Bank of India chief manager, grows about 5,000 pomegranate plants in Jalore and says moving step by step from chemical to biological inputs, with drip irrigation, cut his orchard costs from about Rs 20 lakh to Rs 8-9 lakh this year.
Mycetoma enters through thorn pricks and small cuts in the fields and slowly destroys tissue and bone, yet India has no national surveillance for it; researchers want it brought into the country's One Health mission.
CropsICAR-IIMR's regional pearl millet station at Gudamalani, Balotra, opened a new administrative and laboratory building and a technology park, part of Rs 1,716 lakh of investment to strengthen research and farmer training.
Four ICAR-CAZRI varieties released in the last three years, CAZRI Moth-4 to Moth-7, kept growing and podding through 35 rainless days from 3 August to 7 September in western Rajasthan, where moth bean covers nearly 10 lakh hectares at about 350 kg/ha; seed for 23.32 quintals of Saathi Portal inden
