Spiralling prices of pulses have shown India’s dependence on imports. Pulses are integral to India’s diet but not its food policy. As a result, supply cannot meet demand. What are the consequences and solutions? Surendra Nath has switched to eating grass-pea, though he knows it is not good for health. But so is tobacco, he argues. He cannot do without pulses and pigeon-pea selling at Rs 100 a kg is beyond...

Faceless farmers who, by dint of hard work and enterprise, fought against odds to make a difference were recognised at a quiet ceremony here on Friday, the day Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the budget in Parliament. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar took over an hour to distribute the awards and trophies to the small and marginal farmers from all parts of the country in the presence of Union Minister of...

This is a budget crafted for, and perhaps by, the corporate farmer and agribusiness. The real heroes of India's success story were our farmers. Through their hard work, they ensured “food security” for the country.— Pranab Mukherjee, interim budget speech Feb. 16, 2009 This Budget belongs to 'Aam Aadmi'. It belongs to the farmer, the agriculturist, the entrepreneur and the investor. — Pranab Mukherjee, budget speech, Feb. 26, 2010 Gee! Another pro-farmer budget....

PUNE: Bandya Pashte, 28, has been cultivating paddy on his family’s five-acre plot in village Veravli in the Konkan, Maharashtra’s coastal strip for about a decade. Last year, though, he threw in the towel because farming is not remunerative and lacks social status. Bandya has since migrated to the city to work as a driver, earning more than he did as a farmer. While Bandya is unaware of the National...

Without fertilisers, said Normal Borlaug, the world would need two billion people to volunteer to just disappear.  Obviously, it makes sense to increase the supply of fertilisers rather than to look for those volunteers. Sense, however, is in short supply in India’s fertiliser policy , and we have a supply shortage of the stuff. The domestic price of fertiliser has been static since 2002 and the domestic industry has seen...