-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the country's food grain production is likely to reach an all-time high level this year as bumper crops are expected in wheat, rice and pulses on the back of good monsoon rain last year. He said wheat production is likely to cross 100 million tonnes for the first time in 2013-14, surpassing the previous record of 94.88 million tonnes...

-The Financial Express India's grain output has risen substantially in recent years. India's grain output has risen substantially in recent years, taking the country to the league of the world's largest producers of rice, wheat and horticultural crops thanks to the use of diverse seed varieties, among other things. And productivity at Indian farms could increase further in coming years thanks to a centrally managed gene bank that would help multiply seed...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government should have calculated the costs of possible retaliation by other states before banning potato export from Bengal, agriculture experts have said. For now, no state has threatened a payback for the ban, clamped despite pleas from the chief ministers of Odisha and Assam after a shortage pushed up potato prices in Bengal. As the Bengal administration grapples with the problem, importers of essential foodstuff have sounded...

-The Guardian     Indian farmers have seen increased yields not just in rice but also in wheat cultivation. Could SCI curb hunger in low-resource communities?     Yields achieved under the system of rice intensification (SRI) have made headlines in recent years, with one farmer in India reported to have produced a record-breaking 22.4 tonnes from one hectare of land in 2011. But why stop at rice? Farmers and NGOs have found that the same...

The poor man’s rich grain is getting richer – a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that a variety of new pearl millet (more commonly known as bajra), which was conventionally bred to be 10% richer in iron helped iron-deficient children under the age of 3 years, to absorb enough of this crucial mineral to meet their physiological requirements. (See links below for full text and a...