The reported decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs taken at a meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to keep the minimum support price of cotton unchanged for kharif season 2010-11 has left three million growers of the state unhappy. Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said, "The prices were last revised in 2008-09 and during election year it were raised to Rs 3,000 a quintal more...

In a move expected to boost rural incomes but which will also impact retail prices, the government is set to raise minimum support price for the kharif season's rice crop from Rs 950 to Rs 1,050 a quintal while MSP for pulses is set to jump by between Rs 400-500. The rise in procurement price of pulses is seen as a significant bid to encourage cultivation of foodgrains that are...

To encourage cultivation of pulses, the Union government on Thursday increased the minimum support prices by up to 33 per cent, but did not extend the favour to other kharif crops. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, increased the minimum support price of arhar by Rs. 700 a quintal to Rs. 3,000, of moong by Rs. 410 to Rs. 3,170 and of urad by...

Stung by last year’s worst drought in decade that trimmed foodgrain production by more than 15 million tonne, the agriculture ministry asked all its top bureaucrats to visit different states and spend more time in the field this year to ensure timely supply of inputs to farmers and prevent a repetition of last year if monsoon become uncertain. The move is also meant to effectively monitor the sowing process and...

The country's agriculture sector recorded the lowest growth in five years, at 0.2 per cent, in fiscal year 2009-10 due to widespread drought. Agriculture and its allied sectors had grown at 1.6 per cent in 2008-09. However, dismal as the farm sector's growth seemed to be, it was not as low as expectations set for the fiscal. It had grown by 0.2 per cent, though the earlier estimation -- arrived...