-Business Standard Govt should revamp agricultural marketing to increase farmers' earnings and amend land-leasing laws Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has met farm SECtor representatives for pre-Budget consultations at a time Indian agriculture is passing through a bad patch - especially because of two years of conSECutive drought. Predictably, therefore, most participants pitched for more credit on soft terms, higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops and the expansion of irrigation facilities to...

-The Hindu ADILABAD: Anyone wanting to witness the intrinsic relationship between education and food SECurity in low income and poverty ridden areas should visit the backward Sirpur Assembly constituency in the Adilabad district of Telangana. Provision of mid-day meals at government junior colleges here for the last 20 days has resulted in improved attendance of students thereby enhancing the scope for them to perform better in exams. “You do not need to...

-The Indian Express The farmers are under severe stress, with profitability in farming falling alarmingly. FY17 budget must boldly address the agriculture crisis. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his team are beginning pre-budget consultations with various stakeholders for the upcoming FY17 budget. Generally, the consultations start with agriculture, slated for January 4. It’s good practice and courteous to invite farm experts and farmers’ representatives. Often, one finds these meetings full of anguish...

-Livemint.com Wheat sowing is lower by 5.6%, pulses by nearly 7% and oilseeds shows a lag of nearly 12%, compared to the normal area sown by this time of the year New Delhi: An unusually dry and warm winter across northern India has impacted sowing of winter crops, even as the window for planting is nearing its end. While overall sowing of Rabi (winter) crops is lagging behind by 6% compared to...

-The Hindu The climate models will be prepared by the Pune-based Centre for Climate Change Research Mysuru: India will have its own climate change models to project the impact of global warming over the decades and these will form part of the forthcoming Sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports that is expected to be available in 2020. The IPCC reports — there have been five so far since 1988 — are coordinated by the United Nations...