-ThePrint.in Mihir Shah, who headed the panel that drafted National Water Policy, says crop diversification, without endangering national food security, is important for resolving water crisis. New Delhi: The focus of public procurement on predominantly wheat and rice dates back to the early years of the Green Revolution, and this is what enabled India to build a large buffer stock of grain. However, there is no doubt that this overwhelming focus on just...

-The Tribune A major hurdle to increasing exports is the decades-long neglect of export market infrastructure, which doesn’t meet the importing countries’ standards in terms of quality, quantity and other attributes such as food safety norms. India lacks an export-oriented strategy for agricultural commodities to establish itself as a regular supplier to international markets due to ad hoc measures such as a ban on exports or increase in tariffs off and...

When one of the three farm laws i.e., The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 was enacted last year, it was argued by its proponents that the legislation would allow the farmers to sell their produce (and the traders to purchase that produce) outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee-APMC mandis after crop harvesting. In a way, that particular piece of legislation was enacted to end the...

-The New Indian Express A confrontation is brewing in Punjab after the Centre, for the first time, capped paddy procurement from the state at 170 lakh metric tonnes.  CHANDIGARH: A confrontation is brewing in Punjab after the Centre, for the first time, capped paddy procurement from the state at 170 lakh metric tonnes. The Centre has also made it clear that it will not bear any responsibility for extra paddy arriving at...

-The Hindu ‘Private hospitals procure vaccines directly from manufacturers, so no data available’ The Health Ministry says it does not know how many COVID-19 vaccines were procured by private players, nor does it have separate data on how many vaccine doses were administered by private hospitals and service providers, according to its response to a Right to Information request filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd). Despite the fact that the government had reserved...