-The Indian Express Agriculture needs a champion in the Union cabinet. July, this year, marks the silver jubilee of economic reforms. It is time to take stock of our major successes and failures. There is a saying that bad times are often good for policies and good times are bad for policies. It is well-known that the foreign exchange crisis, with reserves falling to as low as $1.5 billion, triggered fundamental changes...

-HuffingtonPost.com In Bundelkhand, people struggle for every drop of water they can find. TIKAMGARH DISTRICT: For years, Lakshman Pal, 28, planted wheat and tended to his small field here. Each season, he hoped for rain. He looked up at the sky and waited for the showers that normally came. But for the past two years, they’ve hardly come at all. His crops eventually withered and died, crumbling to dust. In early May, Pal...

-PTI New Delhi: Under pressure to control pulses prices, the Centre is hopeful of clinching a long-term deal with Mozambique for assured supply of lentils after the two countries had positive talks last week. Indian delegations last week visited pulses growing nations, Mozambique and Myanmar, to explore government-to- government arrangement for assured supply of lentils, especially tur, on a long term basis. "The delegation is back with long term solution in sight. The...

-The New Indian Express If a government survey report is to be believed, an agricultural household harvests a debt of Rs 3,000 every month, forget about making money to sustain itself. The agricultural household 70th round survey of National Sample Survey Office conducted during July 2012 and June 2013 has revealed that the total income of an agricultural household per month was just Rs 6,426. On the other hand, the total...

-Scroll.in Farmers in Maharashtra say almost all the seeds supplied by one company contracted a disease. A failure of tomato seeds might have contributed to the current rise in tomato prices across Maharashtra, if not the rest of the country. Since April, tomato prices have more than doubled across India. While the conventional wisdom has attributed this to excessive heat and unseasonal rain that affected the tomato crop at its flowering stage, farmers...