-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...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A common north Indian staple, the arhar or tur dal has touched Rs 180 per kg in the retail market. Across Delhi, price of most other dals too is well over Rs 100, having marked an increase of Rs 10-30 per kg since early September.   Where tur is in the range of Rs 145-Rs 180 in packaged form, dhuli masoor is between Rs 124 and Rs...

-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...

-The Indian Express As many parts of the country reel under a back-to-back drought, Kavitha Iyer reports from the region that’s at the centre of the crisis. Weeks before hanging himself from a tree on his farm on June 1 this year, Kalyan Khomne, 55, read out a newspaper report to his son Shahdev. “It was about a farmer’s suicide in our taluka,” says 26-year-old Shahdev. His village, Nandurghat, and the nearby...

-The Indian Express The big question in the minds of everyone who can recall is: Will 2015 for Marathwada turn out worse than the worst-ever drought of 1972? Parbhani (Maharashtra): Sadashiv Kathurappa Gajmal, 44, has long stopped introducing himself as a farmer. “I am a labourer,” says this father of four and owner of 2.5 acres of land in Charthana village of Parbhani’s Jintur taluka. Unfortunately, he has had little or no...