-The Telegraph Guwahati: The Assam Agricultural University is fighting for a geographical indications (GI) tag for a local variety of rice - joha - claiming it has better aroma than the famed Basmati. "The joha class of rice is unique in aroma and grain characteristics and distinct from other aromatic rice like Basmati in biochemical and other quality attributes. The uniqueness of this rice is mainly attributed to particular climatic conditions prevalent...

-The Hindu Business Line The Congress law and the BJP's amended version both fail to address the lack of transparency in property deals A toxic mix of hypocrisy, amnesia, opportunism, ignorance, and paternalism has led to a mess on the land acquisition legislation. It seems certain that whatever law we end up with is going to be bad law. It will not serve the primary purpose of any eminent domain law -...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: A potato glut and plunging prices have triggered suicides in Bengal's Hooghly, Burdwan and Bankura districts. Hooghly alone reported six of them. Prices have crashed, one kg of the tuber selling for Rs 3 to Rs 4. With the pressure unlikely to ease in the near future, peasants face an uncertain future and are agitating. In 2013, Bengal's farmers reaped a good harvest of 85 lakh tonnes...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Government has stepped up taking measures, well in advance, to avoid any situation of abnormal increase prices of onion and potato. Two major entities at national level - National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) and Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium (SFAC) - will be tasked to procure the two major kitchen staples and store them so that the supply can be pumped in when prices go...

-The Hindu Business Line   Small and marginal farmers in rainfed regions are trapped in a losing battle with agriculture - and with life The lot of the poor Indian farmer keeps deteriorating with the passage of time. According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data released on December 19, 2014, during the last decade, the bloated debt of Indian agricultural households increased almost 400 per cent Even the number of heavily...