-The Indian Express Government godowns are, for the first time, bursting at the seams with pulses on record procurement Pune: When in mid-December, Anand Pawar decided to register the standing tur (pigeon-pea) on 10 out of his 50-acre holding with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Marketing Federation’s purchase centre at Latur, he was quite hopeful of realising the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,450 per quintal for the soon-to-be-harvested crop. At...

-Frontline.in The women-led climate-resilient farming model created by Swayam Shikshan Prayog in drought-hit Marathwada has yielded encouraging results and is worthy of emulation across the country. “LOOK at our quinoa. It has grown so well,” says a beaming Shailaja Narwade from Masia village near Solapur in interior Maharashtra. Shailaja has planted the traditional South American plant not for consumption but in order to harvest its seeds. “Quinoa seeds are very valuable...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru: With onion prices at their lowest level in calendar year 2018, exporters said the Centre should bring back incentives to ship out more bulbs, to help stabilise prices and provide better returns to farmers. As the harvest of the rabi onion crop gains pace across the key producing regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka, prices have declined drastically, leaving growers in tears. At Lasalgaon, the largest onion market...

-The Financial Express The recent spell of unseasonable rains and hailstorms in a clutch of northern states haven’t had any major adverse impact on the rabi crop being harvested, officials claimed, based on field reports. The agriculture ministry has been expecting all-time high foodgrain production of 277.5 million tonnes in 2017-18 crop year (July-June) on good distribution of monsoon rainfall last year, even though pan-India rains were just 95% of the...

-The Indian Express Schemes to ensure that farmers get fair returns will come a croppper unless trade and tariffs are synced with minimum support prices. With farm prices of several commodities falling way below their minimum support prices (MSPs) in 2016-17 and 2017-18, farmers have been under increasing stress. The Centre and several state governments are searching for ways and means to support farmers. In his recent address (Mann ki Baat), the...