Buoyed by high foodgrains production, the country's farm sector is expected to grow at 5.4 per cent in the current financial year, as against 0.4 per cent a year ago. A likely growth in the "agriculture, forestry and fishing sector" is due to an estimated higher production of rice, wheat, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and some horticultural crops, according to Advance Estimate released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). The foodgrains production...

The state government will open 583 foodgrain banks at villages across Jharkhand and provide grains to every below poverty line (BPL) family immediately. Food and civil supplies minister Mathura Prasad Mahto said this today after a review of the district under North Chotanagpur commissionerate, where he instructed officials to check hoarders and prevent hunger deaths by supplying foodgrain free of cost to the poor. The minister said the government had also decided...

Government’s food subsidy bill is expected to swell to around Rs 81,000 crore in the current financial year, up from the Budget estimate of around Rs 68,000 crore for 2010-11 because of higher cost of procurement of wheat and rice and increased allocations to below poverty line and above poverty line families in the current financial year, official sources said. The 19% estimated increase in food subsidy also includes those part...

From onions, sugar and coconuts, to tea, pulses, rice and spices, all kitchen ingredients will remain expensive in the New Year as unseasonal rains beyond the monsoon wipe out India’s major crops. Worse, rains are hampering the sowing of winter wheat, coarse grains and oilseeds, putting further pressure on food inflation that touched a two-and-a-half month high at 14.44% on Thursday. Across the country, farmers are helplessly watching their fields turn into...

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday submitted the Working Group on Agriculture Production report to Indian Prime Minister in New Delhi. It is to mention that Indian Prime Minster on April 8, 2010 constituted the Working Group on Agriculture Production under the chairmanship of the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal as members to recommend strategies and action plan...