ITANAGAR, April 12 – Arunachal Pradesh government is giving special thrust to creating gainful employment opportunities for youths, especially in tea and rubber plantation schemes. Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, who convened a meeting here yesterday to create a separate Tea and Rubber Board, asked the departmental officials to expedite the process in order to facilitate the interested youths take up horticulture and cash crop farming.

He also urged the officials to prepare feasible plans and formulate it for execution in the current financial year, official source said here today.

The Southern Action on Genetic Engineering (SAGE) has alleged that the ‘success story of Bt cotton' in the last 10 years is only a hype.

When Bt cotton spread to 85 per cent of the country's cotton area in 2009-10, the yield was 474 kg of lint a hectare.

“This is just 4 kg more than the yield in 2004-05 when Bt cotton's share was 5.70 per cent in the total cotton area. Besides 25 lakh acres of new area has been brought under cotton ever since significantly increasing production,” Mr P.V. Satheesh, National Convenor of SAGE, said.

Climate change is altering the face of the Himalayas, devastating farming communities and making Mount Everest increasingly treacherous to climb, some of the world’s top mountaineers have warned.

Apa Sherpa, the Nepali climber who has conquered Mount Everest a record 21 times, said he was disturbed by the lack of snow on the world’s highest peak, caused by rising temperatures.

Kolkata At a time when potato growers in the state are not getting a good price for their produce, the West Bengal government has asked them to shift focus to other cash crops like oilseeds and corn.

Rabindranath Bhattacharya, state’s agriculture minister, said, “We are asking potato growers to shift to alternative cash crops like oilseeds, corn and cereals. We are anticipating that area under potato cultivation will substantially come down in 2012,” he said.

Rainfall patterns in southern Africa are becoming erratic as climate change takes its toll, threatening long-term production of staple and cash crops in the region.

Countries like South Africa, Zambia and Malawi have enjoyed bumper harvests of their staple maize crop in recent years, ensuring food security in a region which has often known hunger.

But farmers, who for centuries have known when to expect summer rains, are now finding planning difficult.

KOKRAJHAR: The farmers of Janagaon, Titaguri under Titaguri Development Block expressed their strong resentment following the supply of unfit seeds to the farmers in Kokrajhar and demanded compensation for the loss of working expenditure.

Wildfires are raging across central Texas, compounding drought that has caused $5.2bn in agricultural losses and led ranchers in the largest cattle-producing US state to rush to slaughter.

At the weekend, the Texas Forest Service responded to 63 new fires, many fanned by winds from tropical storm Lee.

Texas has been in drought for a year, with more than 3.6m acres burnt in wildfires since the fire season began in November. A record number of 38C days has dried grass and hay, leaving ranchers with no choice but to sell cows for slaughter.

Rain-dependent areas, which account for 60% of India