-The Economic Times The government should liquidate wheat stocks through exports and sales in the open market and share the proceeds with farmers to raise their income levels, a government panel suggested. In its latest report to the agriculture ministry, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), which recommends a minimum support price (MSP) for agriculture crops, is said to have maintained that there is no reason to lift the...

-The Economic Times KOCHI: A spate of avian flu outbreaks in the last few years has dashed India's hopes of becoming a major egg exporter. Oman, the largest buyer of Indian eggs, has now imposed a second ban on Indian shipments this year following the avian flu incidence in a research farm in Karnataka. The earlier embargo on Indian eggs enforced by Oman in March was only lifted in September. Oman accounts...

-The Business Standard Govt must stop open-ended procurement of wheat It is not often that the government asks the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to review its report on the pricing and marketing policy for wheat — though the commission’s recommendations have been overlooked in the past to factor in political considerations while fixing minimum support prices (MSP). The present controversy over wheat- marketing policies concerns chiefly two issues....

-The Hindu Kerala’s Kudumbashree network and the rural employment guarantee scheme have converged to provide a unique model of empowerment An incredible story of empowerment has been unfolding in the wake of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) programme in the State of Kerala. This is the story of how a socially engineered convergence of the scheme with panchayati raj institutions and the State sponsored community network of poor...

-The Business Standard Turning the country's food procurement agency into an international trader will fan inflation and hunger At a time when the Global Hunger Index 2012 ranks India 65th among 79 countries, K V Thomas, minister of state for food and public distribution and consumer affairs, has revealed that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will soon trade wheat in the futures market. Seeking clearance from the Forward Markets Commission, the...