-The Times of India KOLHAPUR: As many as one lakh families of farmers in the state opted out of agriculture, their sole profession, in the last five years, according to the latest agriculture Census figures. Experts expressed fears that the trend might continue with the availability of other income sources and tolerance level of the farmers reaching its peak. The final figures of agricultural land holdings for 2015-16 will be released later. According...

-PTI NEW DELHI: India is working with the WTO members to ensure an early permanent solution on the food security issue, parliament was informed today. "India is working with the WTO members to ensure a permanent solution at the earliest," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. Ending months-long deadlock, the WTO in November last year acceded to India's demand to remove constraints on the...

-Financial Express The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat seeking more time to finalise and digitise the beneficiary lists and complete end-to-end computerisation of the public distribution system (PDS). The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A UN report has projected steady decline in prices of foodgrains over the next decade, attributing the gradual price fall to increase in overall agricultural production and diversification of dietary choices towards meat and dairy products. The report, released last week, however, emphasized that prices of foodgrains would not fall below early 2000-levels "despite the advantageous scenario regarding global food pricing". It noted that additional agricultural...

-Livemint.com Trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman will raise the issue at an informal meeting of WTO trade ministers in Paris on Thursday New Delhi: Hardening its stand on the food security issue, India will insist that countries agree to a permanent solution to the dispute over public stockholding of foodgrains by December as originally promised, even though developing nations have been granted an indefinite interim reprieve. Trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman will raise the...