The case of the Food Security Bill gets curiouser and curiouser.  What started off as a fight between universalization and targeting has ended (or so it would seem) in a complete victory in the National Advisory Council, Government of India (NAC) for targeting through universalization (if such a thing was possible), with the honourable exception of Prof Jean Dreze, who has to be commended for his ‘note of disagreement’. On...

The Uttar Pradesh government is expected to soon announce the price at which mills in the state will have to buy sugarcane from farmers. Having received a record Rs 260 per quintal for sugarcane last season, farmers are insisting on a similar payout this season. The figure will be keenly watched because high raw material costs can substantially reduce profitability of companies in a season of bumper sugar production and low...

The government on Wednesday hiked the sugar production estimate for the 2010-11 marketing year (October-September) to 24.5 million tonnes (mt) from 23 mt earlier. "This will be the best year in terms of sugar production and productivity... The production this year will be in the range of 24-24.5 million tonnes," food, PDS and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar said. The current government estimate is virtually on par with that of the...

State-owned trading firm MMTC Ltd, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco) and the conglomerate Bharti Enterprises plan to join the growing number of Indian entities engaged in commercial farming in Africa. Cheap land and labour costs in Africa are attracting a number of Indian firms with interest in agriculture. A large number of people in East African countries such as Kenya work in the cultivation of tea, coffee, corn, vegetables, sugarcane,...

Farmers in drought hit districts in this unusually heavy rains monsoon season will get a diesel subsidy of Rs 500 per hectare, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar announced here on Friday at the start of the National Conference on Rabi Campaign, even as the Centre awaits bumper crop production for most key Kharif crops including paddy, pulses, coarse cereals and sugarcane. Oilseeds are the only crop where acreage is lower than...