-The Hindu Sowing of kharif paddy has improved thanks to rain in some parts of the deficient areas, but it is still lower by 11.40 lakh hectares as compared to last year. If compared with last year’s sowing — a record Foodgrains production year — at this time of the year, the area under paddy, pulses, coarse cereals, oilseeds and cotton is still lower. An inter-Ministerial group that reviewed the situation on Friday...

-PTI Lashing at UPA government for coming out with "lopsided" food security bill, CPI today said the policy of Above Poverty Line (APL) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) should be done away with and every citizens should be given equal priced Foodgrains. "We are protesting against the central government for coming up with a lopsided food security bill. CPI opposes such a bill," CPI Secretary, Jammu Regional Council, Dr G S Charak...

-PTI Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council today said poor monsoon is likely to pull down farm sector growth rate to 0.5 per cent in the current financial year, a projection that is even lower than in 2009-10 when monsoon was the worst in 28 years. The growth in the agriculture sector was one per cent in 2009-10 when production had fallen by 16 million tonnes due to poor monsoon. As many as...

-The Hindustan Times In 2009, when India had its worst drought in three decades in terms of rainfall, the country managed to produce a million more tonnes of Foodgrains than it did in 2007, a normal year. Droughts, such as the one that has now settled in nearly half of the country, are no longer the disaster they used to be, thanks to one of the world's most efficient drought management systems.   Largely indigenous...

-The Indian Express The government on Friday said the spectre of drought over a few states and the likelihood of a lower rainfall pattern this year should not be a concern for a “panicky situation” as it is geared up to face the situation with enough stocks of Foodgrains and sugar. Last year the production of both Foodgrains and sugar had overshot the estimate leaving the government with adequate resources for the...