-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Agriculture The Central Government has asked State Level Bankers' Committees to facilitate timely restructuring of crop loans. With restructuring, the loan repayment period would be extended. The Home Ministry has also written to states to keep 10% of SDRF fund reserved for "local disasters" such as heavy rain which are to be declared at par with national disasters and use this money for distressed farmers. This...

Those who compare India with China on equal basis, could be left with egg on their face if the new Global Food Policy Report 2014-15 is to be read and believed. The recent report from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) shows why India is still faring much worse as compared to its neighbours including China, in the areas of agriculture and food security. In 2012, China spent close to...

-Hindustan Times Sharmilla Dar, a government schoolteacher in east Delhi, is irritated about a sudden surge in vegetable prices in the last week after they had cooled considerably since a year ago. "Why can't the government keep things affordable?" she asks. For middle-class consumers, food inflation worries are creeping back in. The farm sector is hurting badly after a full year of unprecedented weather havocs - from a partial drought last summer...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Prices of vegetables and pulses are set to shoot up after unseasonal rain damaged over 50 lakh hectares of standing crops across the country, putting enormous strain on household budgets. Consumers will have to pay more for potatoes, carrots, cabbages, mustard and almost all the pulses over the next few weeks. Rain in northern, central and western parts has caused widespread damage to crops in Punjab,...

-Business Standard Vegetables as a category showed deflation of 4.78% in December y-o-y, which meant prices started rising substantially in January New Delhi: Vegetable prices in Azadpur wholesale market have risen in the range of 20-40 per cent in January 2015 as compared to the corresponding period last year. A few items saw a rise beyond this range. While carrots turned expensive by 129 per cent, peas, spinach and cabbage prices increased...