-The Telegraph Kolkata: Seedbeds are not yet ready in vast stretches of Bengal's rice bowl because of poor rainfall, raising the prospect of a slump in production and showing up the inability of catchy slogans alone in making farming less of a gamble in the monsoon. Rainfall in the four major rice-producing districts of Bengal till Monday was around 50 per cent less than the normal average, officials in the agriculture department...
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Five questions govt needs to answer on food security -Vivek Kaul
-First Post Sonia Gandhi wants the chief ministers of fourteen states in which the Congress party is in power to role out the food security scheme in letter and spirit, and in quick time. Some media reports suggest that the scheme will be rolled out on August 20, which also happens to be the birth anniversary of Sonia's late husband Rajiv Gandhi. While there seems to be a great hurry to launch...
More »Rains, incomes & food: Good monsoon this year is bad news for India -Himangshu Watts
-The Economic Times The monsoon made a dream start this year. Bountiful rainfall in June has prepared the ground for bumper harvest and lower food inflation. But don't celebrate. Look beyond the immediate future and good monsoon this year may not really be good news. It has merely delayed an agricultural crisis, which our complacent policymakers perhaps need to jolt them into action. With food demand rising in step with the growing...
More »Kharif crop to gain as Met sees good rains in July too -Jayashree Bhosale
-The Economic Times PUNE: After receiving a 32% above-average rainfall in June, the country is likely to get good rainfall in July too. According to IMD officials, the Madden-Julian Oscillations (MJO) has become favourable for the monsoon and will result in good rainfall from mid-July. This will benefit kharif crops, which have been sown early due to timely monsoon. D Shivanand Pai, head of IMD's long-range forecasting division, said, "The Madden-Julian Oscillation...
More »Food bill not to hurt coffers
-The Telegraph Mumbai: The immediate fiscal impact of the food security programme is going to be manageable. Since implementation of the scheme across India will take time, the cost burden for the programme in fiscal year 2013-14, in addition to the budgeted food subsidy of Rs 90,000 crore, has been estimated by Edelweiss Research at Rs 10,000 crore. This is roughly 0.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). But once the...
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