If we can have a nuclear submarine programme, a space missile programme, cricket sponsorship programme by individuals like Sharukh Khan, why can’t we have a programme to save rotting paddy lying across the country,” says Dr MS Swaminathan highlighting the parody that India’s is currently facing. In Ludhiana to address the convocation of Punjab Agriculture University the scientist and Member of Parliament speaks to ET highlighting that the future belongs...

Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen on Monday said the government should have acted with more firmness against hoarders and speculators, to curb price rise. Dr. Sen said that whenever prices start rising some people see in it an opportunity to make money. The government should have acted against such a tendency with a firm hand. He was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Green Revolution II conference organised by...

Another food crisis? This time it’s not shortages but prices—a plain failure of responsive policy and execution. Zooming food prices are raising political temperatures yet again. The rumblings, for once, are not merely restricted to the opposition parties, but evident within the ruling coalition as well. Though attacks from across the political spectrum have become a bit subdued of late, the target remains Union agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar. And...

With a large number of people living on subsistence level of income, the government has to safeguard their interest by ensuring availability of food grains at an affordable price. Success of any policy or programme to this effect depends on growth in agriculture production and procurement of wheat and rice, the main staple foodgrains. Though the performance of agriculture has not been uniform throughout and its growth rate has varied...

The high prices of essential commodities are expected to decline by the end of the rabi season in the next two months, Vijay Shankar Vyas, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said here on Tuesday. “Food inflation would come down by March-April as we are expecting a good rabi production this year,” Dr. Vyas told journalists on the sidelines of the launch of a publication on agriculture, Millions Fed,...