-The Indian Express Agriculture Ministry’s harvest estimates don’t square with drought conditions in several cases, raise serious questions of credibility. We have had two consecutive drought years, yet India’s milk production, according to the Agriculture Ministry, has risen from 137.69 million tonnes (mt) in 2013-14 to 146.31 mt in 2014-15 and 160.35 mt in 2015-16. Never before has the country’s milk output grown at these rates — that too, in the face...

-The Indian Express Agriculture needs a champion in the Union cabinet. July, this year, marks the silver jubilee of economic reforms. It is time to take stock of our major successes and failures. There is a saying that bad times are often good for policies and good times are bad for policies. It is well-known that the foreign exchange crisis, with reserves falling to as low as $1.5 billion, triggered fundamental changes...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Government scientists have called for nationwide surveillance to look for a caterpillar native to South America that has slipped into at least four Indian states and could threaten the country's tomato growers and the ketchup-and-puree industries. The scientists at the National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bangalore, worried about the pest's spread, have also initiated efforts to get wasps and predatory bugs to serve as its natural...

-Livemint.com There is an emphasis on increasing farm productivity, but this might not always align with greater profitability While inaugurating the Krishi Mela at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for a “three-pillared” approach to farming, which included crop farming, agro forestry—that is, planting timber trees along farm peripheries—and animal husbandry. This is an important enunciation of how Indian agriculture works as an integrated system in...

-The Hindu Business Line India against negotiations on these subsidies ahead of other issues New Delhi: Subsidies given to small and marginal fishermen in India could next be targeted by developed nations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as attempts by members to cherry-pick issues at the multilateral trade forum continue. “We are apprehensive of attempts being made at the WTO by some members to push negotiations on fisheries subsidies ahead of other...