Mother Dairy’s retail model helps farmers but is under pressure from chains Call it the Safal model. For close to 25 years, a large chunk of households in the National Capital Region have had access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices—at rates much lower than what the local vegetable and fruits market or the handcart vendor would charge. This was made possible by standing the concept of buying on...

State governments in north India have put their agriculture officials on alert with the yellow rust disease affecting the winter wheat crop in parts of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The fungal disease forms yellow stripes on leaves, hindering photosynthesis and leading to stunted growth and shrivelled grain. India needs a bumper wheat crop this year to meet growing demand in ration shops as well as in the open market. The Haryana agriculture...

-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

-The Economic Times   The Ministry of Agriculture provides assistance to farmers for remunerative returns to farmers and to ensure adequate supply of fruits and vegetables to consumers, under National Horticulture Mission and Horticulture Mission for North-East and Himalayan States ( HMNEH).  This includes assistance for cultivation, establishment of cold storages, setting up of terminal markets, wholesale markets and rural primary markets/apni mandies. National Horticulture Board is also implementing various schemes.  Further, the Ministry...

The state government has finally decided to compensate cotton growing farmers on the basis of their land holding rather than on the crop sold. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said it was not possible to compensate farmers on a per quintal basis — a demand by a few Opposition parties — because many farmers had already sold their cotton. However, Chavan said the state government had not yet decided on the...