Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, while admitting inflation was a cause for concern, attributed the upward trend to the gap between supply and demand. Pawar was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the Centre of Excellence for vegetable, under the Israel-India cooperation in Agriculture. Pawar maintained while the production of a few commodities was increasing, the demand was invariably surpassing the supply, leading to inflation in prices. He maintained the government was looking to...

What’s Going Wrong?     * Market intelligence remains a weak link; farm policies rarely reflect correct scenario     * Extensive damage to crop in Maharashtra not factored in promoting onion, tomato exports     * Middlemen make capital while farmers realise 10-15% margin, not enough to recoup losses     * Government market intervention capacity limited to foodgrains and pulses **** India’s worst-kept secret was finally revealed when the government threw up its hands in despair in the...

Condemning the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government for the continued suicides by farmers in the state, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday said the 'insensitive behaviour' of the state government was forcing farmers to take the extreme step. In a statement issued on Thursday, Singh said that "because of the state government's insensitive behaviour, farmers were losing patience and being forced to take the extreme step of ending their lives." Seven farmers...

Madhya Pradesh Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Minister Ramkrishna Kusmaria has courted a controversy by blaming farmers’ suicides on their “past sins”. “These are old sins that are resulting in such incidents,”the minister told a TV channel on Wednesday, and elaborated it by pointing to indiscriminate use of “chemicals” that has reduced the fertility and “resistance power” of agricultural land. A few cases of farmers’ suicides have been recently reported from Damoh,...

Depressed over his crop getting damaged due to frost, a farmer attempted suicide by consuming pesticide in Madhya Pradesh's Damoh district Monday. It was the second such incident in the past three days in the district. The BJP government denied that any farmer had tried to kill himself due to debt. State Minister and government spokesperson Narottam Mishra told reporters: 'No farmer has committed suicide due to debt and there is...