11 Mar : From crop rotation to organic farming practices, farmers are always interested in learning the latest agricultural practices.
And to transfer this information in a language and medium they can understand, Rikin B Gandhi, an astronautical engineer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, is using video and mediated instruction.

“Many farmers in developing countries often lack knowledge that could immediately improve their livelihoods. To educate such a vastly scattered population, two key areas need to be developed: locally relevant content production and distribution,” says Gandhi, founder of Digital Green, an …

1 Nov : With an aim to widen the scope of ensuring safety of food products, the Government is all set to introduce a new set of regulations from next year, replacing the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
“Under the existing provisions, small operators like street vendors cannot be licensed. The new regulations will require them to undergo a simple registration process at the base level, say the panchayats or municipalities,” said P I Suvarathan, Chairperson of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The new …

24 July :  As contingent measures to deal with the deficient rainfall, the Centre on Friday said it will stop all exports of non-Basmati rice and wheat, and bear half of the subsidy on diesel offered to farmers by the states.
These decisions were announced by Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in the Rajya Sabha, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues were briefed on the monsoon situation and Kharif sowing.
Allaying fears of shortage of foodgrains, Pawar said, “Stock position is quite comfortable. We have sufficient …

By : Milind Ramteke : A buffalo clone, Garima, was presented to the world last week at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana). This was the second live cloned buffalo, the first one having lived only a few days.

What is Cloning?
Cloning is to create genetically similar organism from a single parent without sexual reproduction. Simply, the clone of a female will be a female with genetic similarity to her mother and the clone of a male will be a male with genetic similarity to his father.
Cloning is widely prevalent …

4 July : TAMIL Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), the first such varsity in the country to implement ICT-based teaching, has introduced e-registration of its courses. Students can log on to TNAU Student Management System portal and e-register for the courses, TNAU sources said.