-ThePrint.in Centre's procurement deal through NAFED offers Kashmir apple farmers a lower rate than last year, while also changing the definitions of different categories Srinagar: The Centre’s decision to procure Kashmir’s apple produce to prevent distress sales amid tensions in the Valley will put farmers at a disadvantage over conventional sales, ThePrint has learnt.   With militants reportedly threatening traders against conducting business, and a public curfew in place against the decision to...

-The Indian Express NAFED has been tasked with purchasing all the apples that growers bring to sell at mandis in the Valley. A bumper crop, for which there would hardly be any private buyers with all the current movement restrictions, makes it all the more challenging. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) has not bought a single kilogram of apples for the last three decades or more. “We did...

-TheWire.in apple growers held demonetisation responsible for the problem, as agents do not pay them at the time of sale by claiming money is not in circulation. Shimla: Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh are notorious for delaying paying the dues of sugarcane farmers by several months, and often even by years. Now, arthiyas (commission agents) in Himachal Pradesh have decided to compete with the sugar mills. Outstanding dues of apple growers in the...

-The Indian Express Yes, except that farmers suffer rules other businessmen never encounter Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”. But the exalted...

-PTI DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul has asked scientists of central research institutions in the state to come up with ways to encourage small farmers to begin organic farming. Paul made these suggestions to the scientists during his his visit to Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) and Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Mukteshwar to study the possibilities of benefiting local farming and animal husbandry through these central research institutions,...