-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has proposed making food fortification mandatory for all staples like rice, wheat flour, edible oil and milk to fight malnutrition but some experts have urged a cautious approach, warning of hidden costs and unproven health benefits. The Telegraph had reported in January 2016 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pushed the idea of universal fortification - addition of key vitamin and minerals to foods to improve...

-The Hindu The welfare challenge lies in providing assistance to needy households to ensure adequate diets without creating conditions in which they opt for inferior diets that are too heavy on cereals With the Kerala government’s decision to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from April, the whole country will be covered by the legislation. However, if we expect the NFSA to improve India’s malnutrition statistics, we may well be disappointed....

-Scroll.in A farmer describes her efforts to preserve 12 breeds of draught as well milch indigenous cattle. On Monday, the so-far peaceful protests against jallikattu on Chennai’s Marina Beach turned violent as the police sought to clear agitators from what had become ground zero of the movement against the Supreme Court ban on the bull-taming sport. Though an ordinance cleared on Saturday allowed the sport to take place this Pongal, the controversy...

-The Hindu Only science can ensure commercial viability and protection of indigenous breeds. With the Tamil Nadu Governor clearing an ordinance on jallikattu, the question is whether the sport will help preserve indigenous breeds of cattle. The proponents of jallikattu say that first, if the sport is banned, owners of indigenous bulls may no longer find it worth preserving the indigenous variants. Second, they say it is the ‘untamed’ bull that is...

-The Indian Express Agriculture GDP bucks the trend of decline in other sectors. But can the government help the farmers sustain this growth? The first advanced estimates of GDP growth for the financial year 2016-2017 (FY17) show a marginal decline from 7.6 per cent last year to 7.1 per cent this year. Of the various sectors, gross value added at basic prices (2011-12), mining and quarrying is down from 7.4 per cent...