-The Tribune There has been a big political rush to reform Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) or agricultural markets. It is now known that most of the problems of the farm sector start and end with agricultural markets in some way or the other. The Model APMC Act 2003 provided a road map for the states to amend their APMC Acts in order to provide choice of channels to farmer for sale...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Agriculture Government restructured the ongoing scheme and following centrally sponsored Mission/Schemes are under implementation from 1.4.2014: (i) National Food Security Mission (NFSM) (ii) National Horticulture Mission (iii) National Mission on Oilseeds & Oil Palm (iv) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) including Micro Irrigation (v) National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (vi) Integrated Scheme for Farmers Income Security (vii) Integrated Scheme on Agri. Census & Statistics (viii) Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Marketing (ix)...

-The Business Standard     They were unimpressed by the UPA's misguided socialism, but they worry about the new regime's free-market orientation too Consider this paradox. The Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was decimated in the elections in spite of several years of good monsoon and rising agricultural production. Consider another paradox. This was the regime that implemented policies that were presumed to be pro-farmer: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the...

-The Hindu Pune: The two-day State bandh called by sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra started on a violent note on Thursday, especially in the western part of the State. The farmers, under the leadership of MP Raju Shetty of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), have been agitating for a higher first advance from the government. The protest, which started on November 15, disrupted normal life as transport services were stopped across west Maharashtra....

-Live Mint CCEA clears recommendations on sugar sector made by Rangarajan panel; subsidy burden to rise Pushing ahead with long-pending reforms of the sugar industry, the cabinet on Thursday approved the dismantling of rules requiring sugar mills to sell the sweetener at below-market prices through the public distribution system (PDS) and abolished curbs on open market sale. The cabinet committee on economic affairs cleared the recommendations made by a panel headed by C....