-IANS   With harsh wintry conditions sapping the juice out of Himachal Pradesh's fruit production this season, potatoes in the picturesque Lahaul Valley have been among the few crops that have seen an increase in production. "This year Lahaul's seed potato varieties have a bumper crop after two consecutive crop failures. The weather remained congenial throughout the season," Amar Chand Dogra, managing director of the Lahaul Seed Potato Growers Cooperative Marketing Ltd, told...

-The Business Standard   This year’s paddy procurement season has started with foodgrain stocks being more than double the buffer stock norms. An increase in grain stocks will put a strain on the already-scarce warehousing space, with consequences for safe storage and usability. Thus, excess holding of grains ought to be avoided. Maintaining a stockpile of nearly 55 million tonnes, with average economic cost of wheat and rice being Rs 18,000 per...

-The Business Standard   For a country whose cuisine uses so much edible oil, India’s dependence on imported cooking oil is as economically debilitating as its dependence on imported energy. Barring a short spell in the late eighties, when the country was nearly self-sufficient in edible oil production, the bulk of the cooking oil needs have been met through imports for decades. Even today, domestic oilseed production does not meet even...

Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, diseases and devastation, was able to save its own life largely because of India’s questionable efforts at global forums. The controversial pesticide has been in news for a long time because of its harmful effects on humans, wild life and the environment. Obviously the $100 million industry is going out of the way to defend the...

The lush green Indian state of Kerala, advertised in travel brochures as "God’s Own Country", is at the center of a continuing battle in the country to secure an early ban on the use of the pesticide endosulfan. The Kerala government and activists say the pesticide has caused 4,000 victims in the state, through cancer, crippled limbs and babies born with deformities; 496 related deaths have been officially recorded. No scientist,...