The recent announcement of minimum support prices (MSP) for various Kharif crops has once again called into question certain aspects of the official policy towards agricultural pricing. True to pattern, it has come in late. The monsoon arrived at least a week before, and many farmers might have already chosen the crops to sow. The world over governments through their price support programmes, consisting of assured minimum prices and subsidies,...
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'Raise PDS grain price for APL population' by Gargi Parsai
The government may shift to per capita allocation of foodgrains and raise the price of wheat and rice meant for the Above the Poverty Line (APL) population under the Public Distribution System (PDS) to meet the objectives of the proposed National Food Security Bill. Raising the price of APL foodgrains is an “unavoidable adjustment,” the Planning Commission has said in a note it has prepared for the Sonia Gandhi-headed National...
More »How fruit trees in Indian village save girls' lives by Amarnath Tewary
In India, where traditionally boys have been preferred over girls, a village in backward Bihar state has been setting an example by planting trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child. In Dharhara village, Bhagalpur district, families plant a minimum of 10 trees whenever a girl child is born. And this practice is paying off. Nikah Kumari, 19, is all set to get married in early June. The would-be...
More »Put millets back on the plate by Biraj Patnaik
One of the key demands of the Right to Food Campaign for the National Food Security Act is to re-introduce nutritious millets to government food programmes like the public distribution system. Millets like bajra, jowar, kodo, kutki and ragi among hundreds of other varieties have sustained communities for close to 10,000 years in India. Yet, they have been marginalized as food crops since the days of the Green Revolution in...
More »Paddy, pulses support price hiked
THE government on Thursday raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1000 per quintal in what may push up its food subsidy bill, pegged at Rs 5 5,578.18 crore in the current fiscal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also increased the minimum support price of pulses by up to Rs 700 to touch Rs 3,170 a...
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