-The Times of India BATAGUDA (Odisha): Women and men working on the hillsides is a common sight when travelling through Odisha's Kandhamal district. All day, they crouch in the scorching sun, using crude tools to break large rocks into little stones. It takes each person several days to fill a 5ft-tall container with enough stones to earn about Rs 900. Most tribal women do this backbreaking work but with hardly any proteins...

-DNA State policies favouring certain food crops have rendered pulses forbiddingly expensive and the common man is feeling the pinch The huge spurt in dal prices, touching Rs180 per kilogram and even Rs200 in some cities, has come as a dampener to the festive season, and raised questions about the policies of the government. For some years now, India has been resorting to huge imports of pulses to meet domestic demand...

-Down to Earth Even as studies point out the use of these pesticides in food commodities, coordination gaps between concerned deparments have not been addressed In a scheme for monitoring pesticide residues in food commodities, the Ministry of Agriculture has found that 12.5 per cent of samples analysed contained non-approved pesticides. The 2014-15 annual report of the ministry's Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare contains data related to use of pesticides,...

-The Indian Express Government’s actions on the commodity reveals it is ignorant of how a market economy is run With each passing day this year, agriculture seems to be sagging and so is the Indian farmer. Deficit monsoon rains appear to be the trigger. Although rains offered some respite to Marathwada, the situation in India’s largest agri-state, Uttar Pradesh, has gone from bad to worse. Last year’s drought, with monsoon rains falling...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The prices of pulses can shoot up by 10-15 per cent in the run up to the festival season, according to an Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) study released here on Friday. The trade body estimates that India will import over 10 million tonnes (mt) of pulses since domestic production is likely to be limited to around 17 mt on the back of a...