-Business Standard Says Parlt panel suggestion of MSP at 50% more than cost will distort market; also declines suggestions for region-wise floor prices The government believes fixing a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural commodities which is 50 per cent more than the cost of production could distort the market and encourage inefficient production. It would also go against the principle of comparative advantage in producing specific crops. In its Action Taken Report on...

-The Hindu Agriculture a State subject, Central help supplementary: Minister The Maharashtra government has reported 257 suicides by farmers in the State between January and March this year resulting from the agrarian crisis. “The government of Maharashtra has reported that 257 farmers have committed suicide in the State due to agrarian reasons during the period January to March 2015,” Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria said in a written reply to a...

-The Hindu Given the high investment and negative incentives such as input subsidies, small farmers have not benefited from government schemes. Everything about the suicide of the farmer from Dausa, Gajendra Singh, save the tragedy for his family, has been theatre — the very public venue, the occasion of a political rally, the politicians happily playing their populist cards, and the media’s focus on trivialities. The tragedy is being skilfully milked for...

-The Hindu Business Line Arrivals more than double at key markets as farmers resort to sell-off Ahmedabad: Potato farmers in Gujarat are a worried lot. With harvest being bumper and unseasonal rains affecting the quality, potato prices have come down to one-third of what it was last year. The first estimate, as on February 2015, puts the country’s potato output at around 421 lakh tonnes (lt) – about 6 lt higher than last...

-Business Today The father of India's green revolution, M.S. Swaminathan, is involved in the conservation and cultivation of millet. He tells Business Today why millet is important. Q. Why did millet vanish from our fields? Swaminathan: In the past, in agriculture, a wide range of food crops were grown. Gradually, with market-oriented agriculture, the food basket shrunk, not only in India, but all over the world. As wheat, rice, corn, soyabean, potato became...