-Hindustan Times Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the WTO will have to give a permanent solution to India’s food security issue. HT explains. * What has WTO got to do with food security? The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to facilitate trade among members, who now number at 161. The WTO facilitates trade through rounds of negotiations — there have been nine rounds till now, the latest being the...
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India shining, Bharat whining -Ashok Gulati and Prerna Terway
-Financial Express The country must double its support to farmers, from the current levels of about 6-8% of the value of agri-output It was in the mid-1980s that the ‘India-Bharat’ phraseology was fist pushed into political jargon, by farmers’ leader Sharad Joshi, with ‘India’ representing the urban elite of the country and ‘Bharat’ synonymous with its neglected rural folk. Joshi, at the time, was leading lakhs of farmers protesting against anti-farmer policies,...
More »Centre hikes pulses MSP but experts say too little, too late
-The Indian Express The minimum support price (MSP) for the two pulse crops has been raised by Rs 250 per quintal over their levels in the 2014-15 rabi season. In a bid to encourage farmers to grow more pulses amidst soaring dal rates, the Centre Thursday increased the procurement price of chana (gram) and masur (lentil) planted in the current rabi season by around 10.5 per cent. The minimum support price (MSP) for...
More »Pulse of the matter: Manufacturing a dal crisis, short-changing both farmer and consumer -Yogesh Pawar
-DNA Wondering about the plight of the rural population facing successive droughts which has to buy pulses, South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) laments how no benefit of the price hike is reaching actual pulse farmers. While most link the current tur (pigeon pea) dal crisis with raging market prices, storage issues, hoarding and economics, a new study highlighting the making of the crisis - by South Asia Network...
More »Incentivize pulses production to check spiralling prices
The low rate of inflation of 3.88 percent in Consumer Food Price Index during September, 2015 actually hides the high prices at which various pulses (dal) are available in kirana / retail shops across India. In terms of Consumer Price Index (combined), monthly rate of inflation in pulses and products during September 2015 (over September last year) stood at 29.76 percent as compared to the overall monthly retail inflation of...
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