-Livemint.com Payment to cane growers is considered ‘due’ when it is delayed by more than 14 days after supplying raw cane to a mill New Delhi: Following higher sugar production and plummeting wholesale prices, dues to sugarcane farmers from mills are piling up, shows latest numbers. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), till January end, sugar mills across various states owed farmers Rs13,932 crore. Payment to cane growers is considered ‘due’...

-Business Standard Mills' body alarmed at likely fall in price; ask govt to negotiate for export to neighbouring countries Mumbai: With a sharp increase in output in the first three months of the current cane crushing season, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) has raised the country's production forecast by four per cent or one million tonnes to 26.1 mt for 2017-18 (October-September).   It has also begun lobbying with the government on early...

-Frontline.in In the latest Global Hunger Index, India is bracketed in the category of countries where hunger levels are “serious”. But the policy responses on hunger and malnutrition in the country have been inadequate and faulty. In the second week of October, a few media reports in India highlighted significant data pertaining to global hunger. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) had released its Global Hunger Index (GHI), rating 118...

-The Indian Express Volatility of prices has been one of the major reasons for farmers being weaned away from pulses towards sugarcane. Pune: Last year, when prices of dal had rocketed, both the state and central governments had announced several efforts to increase cultivation of pulses in the country. While the area under cultivation has seen an increase by 119 per cent, wholesale prices of the commodity has seen a dip,...

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...