From the time a farmer in India harvests his produce to the time it lands on your plate, farm products go through several layers of middlemen, wholesalers, cold chains and other intermediaries, which push its price up by many notches. The end result: growers get paid less and consumers pay more. The stranglehold that the government has over agriculture produce marketing in India has given rise to abject inefficiencies, lack...

The Uttar Pradesh government is expected to soon announce the price at which mills in the state will have to buy sugarcane from farmers. Having received a record Rs 260 per quintal for sugarcane last season, farmers are insisting on a similar payout this season. The figure will be keenly watched because high raw material costs can substantially reduce profitability of companies in a season of bumper sugar production and low...

NEW DELHI: Food, PDS and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar made a big pitch to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Thursday on sugar sector decontrol. He placed a plan for the Centre to buy sugar at prevailing market price for the public distribution system (PDS) directly from the open market in the new sugar year starting October. If this goes through in the coming season, sectoral decontrol would be attained after 15 years of waiting for...

Food, PDS and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar made a big pitch to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Thursday on sugar sector decontrol. He placed a plan for the Centre to buy sugar at prevailing market price for the public distribution system (PDS) directly from the open market in the new sugar year starting October. If this goes through in the coming season, sectoral decontrol would be attained after...

Union Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sharad Pawar on Friday said retail prices of some food items like pulses, edible oil, milk and vegetables have been rising in the last six months. “There are few items (essential commodities) where there is no improvement in prices…retail prices of pulses such as urad dal and moong dal, edible oils like groundnut oil and vanaspati, milk and potato have shown...