The Maharashtra government has decided to launch a project with $85 million funding from the Asian Development Bank, which will augment the agriculture infrastructure in the State.

The project is named Agribusiness Infrastructure Development Investment Program (AIDIP) and aims to achieve accelerated investment in agriculture sector and to support related infrastructure in rural areas. Funds would be used for expanding the whole agriculture product value chain in the State.

Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir are emerging as the new hotspots of declining sex ratio in India, according to a recent study published in reputed journal The Lancet.

According to the study, about 95 per cent of districts in Maharashtra and Rajasthan have witnessed further decline in sex ratio, slipping towards the range of traditional hotspots.

Bibekhed village in Buldana district sparkles brightly against the bleak backdrop of Vidarbha known for its despairing farming community. Till about ten years ago, men here wouldn

Mumbai: Of all the perishable products in the Mumbai market, milk is perhaps one of the most adulterated.

The proof: In the past year, the Brihanmumbai division of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has carried out raids on 25 establishments in the city, which were involved in selling adulterated milk.

One man stands surrounded by the debris of agricultural distress in this country: Sharad Pawar. In his second term as Agriculture Minister, he faces the formidable task of redeeming himself by solving the farm crisis that has claimed so many lives in India

POLA IS THE HARVEST FESTI-val in Maharashtra. On this day every August, farmers in the agricultural belts of the state bathe their buffaloes, paint their horns and parade them around their villages. As the villagers of Bhadumri (in western Vidarbha) were busy sprucing up their cattle in August 2006, 35-year-old Anil Shende, a marginal farmer, staggered out of his two-room mud hut and collapsed.