The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices may recommend higher prices in its report. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) may recommend higher minimum support price (MSP) for cotton and sunflower in its report. “Cost of production for most crops have gone up by 10-30 per cent over the last year, due to higher inputs costs like labour and fodder. Cotton has fetched higher market prices compared to its MSP...

Why is every fourth Indian hungry? Why is every third woman in India anaemic and malnourished? Why is every second child underweight and stunted? Why has the hunger and malnutrition crisis deepened even as India has nine per cent growth? Why is “Shining India” a “Starving India”? In my view, hunger is a structural part of the design of the industrialised, globalised food system. Hunger is an intrinsic part of the...

The second advance estimates of crop production for 2010-11 released by Ministry of Agriculture has projected India's foodgrain production at 232.07 million tonnes during 2010-11 compared to 218.11 million tonnes last year. This is only marginally below the record production of 234.47 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2008-09. India is forecasted to achieve record production of wheat (81.47 million tonnes), pulses (16.51 million tonnes) and cotton (339.27 lakh bales of 170...

Mamit district, known as the rice-bowl of Mizoram, has its eyes set on oil palm to provide a new crop to its farmers and at the same time contribute to the state’s agro-based economy. While the state agriculture department introduced oil palm cultivation in 2001, Mamit rather woke up a little late. But since 2007, nearly 4,500 farmers in 45 villages in the district have taken up oil palm cultivation. “We introduced...

The problem is all pervasive as the prices of almost all food items have been rising In a scenario that is all familiar in India and for that matter in many other countries too, rising food prices have become an extremely sensitive issue with major political and social ramifications that go well beyond the economic ones. Not that the economic consequences are unimportant. From the macroeconomic management point of view, rising food...