Galloping food prices have shattered family budgets across the country, with latest inflation data showing that prices rose at nearly 18% in the week ending February 6. Many essentials of Indian kitchens are almost beyond reach; sugar is up by nearly 60%, pulses by 46% and potatoes by 53% over a year. In a country already suffering from chronic malnutrition and low incomes, this trend is a killer. President Pratibha...

With a large number of people living on subsistence level of income, the government has to safeguard their interest by ensuring availability of food grains at an affordable price. Success of any policy or programme to this effect depends on growth in agriculture production and procurement of wheat and rice, the main staple foodgrains. Though the performance of agriculture has not been uniform throughout and its growth rate has varied...

The government’s expectation of the rabi wheat crop making good the shortfall in drought-affected kharif season received a set-back with a lower acreage in wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds this season. Sowing of pulses, however, is 6.2 per cent higher than last year in the corresponding period. The sowing period ends around January 15. The sowing of rabi wheat, coarse cereals and oilseeds has fallen behind last year and this does not...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran has said that Rs.56 crore has been sanctioned to Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) as part of the market intervention programmes initiated by the State government to control the price line. In an official statement here, Mr. Divakaran said the amount had been sanctioned as a follow-up to the decision taken at the December 8 meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee. The amount...

Stocks exceed the buffer norm despite dip in production ‘FCI machinery should be geared up’ The Union government on Wednesday ruled out the likelihood of rice imports on its account, as stocks were more than the buffer norm despite an expected dip in production due to drought in the kharif season. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, Union Agriculture and Food...