-The Indian Express The National Food Security Act (NFSA) passed during the previous UPA regime's tenure was more about "vote security" than "food security", according to Shanta Kumar, BJP MP and chairman of the high level committee on Restructuring the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Defending his committee's recommendation to bring down the coverage of the NFSA from 67 per cent to around 40 per cent of the country's population, Kumar claimed...
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Nutrient facts -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Having decontrolled petrol and diesel, the government's next focus is on containing fertiliser subsidies. Key to this is decontrol of urea and ushering in a system of crediting subsidy payments directly into the bank accounts of farmers. HARISH DAMODARAN explains the existing subsidy regime and the road ahead. * What's so special about urea decontrol? Urea is the only fertiliser whose maximum retail price (MRP) is still fixed...
More »Farmers’ Suicides and Fatal Politics -Vasanthi Srinivasan
-Kafila.org With depressing regularity, the newspapers have been reporting farmers' suicides in many states. Recently, P Sainath wrote on BBC that around 296,438 farmers have committed suicide since 1995. He also mentions that cash crop cultivators of cotton, sugar cane, vanilla, pepper, groundnut etc account for the bulk of those suicides. According to a PIL heard by the Supreme Court in December 2014, around 3146 farmers in Maharashtra have committed suicide...
More »UN agency stresses need for genetic diversity in agriculture to combat climate change
-The United Nations Knowledge of agricultural genetic resources needs to grow more quickly because of the critical role they have to play in feeding the world as climate change advances faster than expected, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). As the FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture starts its biennial meeting today, the Organization has sounded a warning that much more must be done to...
More »After petrol and diesel, Modi government may deregulate urea -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express After petrol and diesel, the Narendra Modi government is looking next to deregulate urea. In the works is a three-year plan to decontrol the maximum retail price (MRP) of this fertiliser - currently fixed at Rs 5,360 a tonne or Rs 268 per 50-kg bag - alongside permitting duty-free imports sans any canalisation or restrictions, and credit the subsidy directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Urea imports now...
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