-Livemint.com Pulses are important from the perspectives of food security, environmental sustainability and balanced nutrition Most pulses such as pigeon pea (tur dal), black gram (urad), green gram (mung), field beans (waal), moth beans (matki) and horse gram (kulith) are native to the Indian subcontinent and have been an integral part of our diet for centuries. However, the single-minded focus on cereals over the last 50 years—the green revolution in wheat and...

-Deccan Chronicle Expert said that extra efforts have to be put in to create awareness to take care of pregnant women and babies to avoid malnutrition. Chennai: A lack of awareness on the nutritional value, a superstitious fear that one may become dark and the lack of interest in the taste of ragi and millets are a few reasons why many people in urban as well as rural Tamil Nadu prefer rice. Though...

-Down to Earth How companies are supplying unsafe and unverified nutrition supplements to children in Karnataka A curious case has emerged in Karnataka. Well-known companies, including Biocon, Jindal Steel and Scania, are supplying spirulina granules to undernourished and malnourished children enrolled in anganwadis (child daycare centres) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), in direct contravention of a 2004 Supreme Court order which said, “Contractors shall not be used for supply...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The countrywide monsoon rainfall this season was three per cent below average instead of the predicted six per cent above average, but it was distributed well enough to promise good crop yields, scientists said. An end-of-season analysis by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shows that the quantum of the all-India rainfall was about 97 per cent of the long-period average. It also reveals that 27 of the country’s 35...

-Livemint.com The problem could be most acute for pulses with production hitting a record high but prices falling below the govt’s minimum support prices New Delhi: Following consecutive years of drought, India is set to harvest a record crop of foodgrains but farm incomes could take a hit due to falling wholesale prices. The problem could be most acute for pulses with production hitting a record high but prices falling below the...