-The Hindu The Maharashtra government’s decision to promulgate an ordinance this week to exempt farmers from having to mandatorily sell their fruit and vegetable crop at mandis governed by a 1963 law on marketing farm produce, is a bold and laudable step. That Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has stood his ground against the powerful lobby of middlemen, who shut shop in protest, is even more commendable. The problem with the present...
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Feeling the pulses pinch -Ramesh Chand & Shambhavi Sharan
-The Hindu As cereal consumption comes down despite higher output, India needs to ramp up production of pulses to meet the nutritional requirements of the population. Since the onset of the Green Revolution in the late 1960s, India has been treading on a path towards self-sufficiency in food. The achievements have remained highly skewed towards wheat and rice on account of technological as well as policy support towards these two crops. With...
More »Maharashtra farmers can now directly tap wholesalers -Jayashree Bhosale
-The Economic Times PUNE: The Maharashtra Cabinet has given in-principle approval to farmers to sell Fruits and Vegetables directly to wholesalers, bypassing the APMC mandis. However, it has held back the decision by a few days, handing it over to a cabinet sub-committee. "A cabinet sub-committee will take a decision on the matter in four days. We want to examine different angles such as the risk involved in farmers getting payment when...
More »35% of what Indians eat today is `foreign' -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India Most of us know exotic new veggies and grains like kale and quinoa are "imported" but even ordinary staples like potato, onion, tomato and chilli came from elsewhere, reports Subodh Varma. A study of 177 countries by scientists from the International Center of Tropical Agriculture has found that in India, more than a third of all food items derived from plants -grains, vegetables, fruits, spices, oils, sugar etc....
More »How to combat food price rise before its too late -Lekha Chakraborty and Pinaki Chakraborty
-The Financial Express Persistence of high food inflation can harden the monetary policy stance and make fiscal choices difficult Food inflation increased to 7.9% in May 2016 as against 4.23% in April. This sudden spurt in food inflation is attributed to vegetable prices, followed by pulses and sugar. Is this a short-term spike or will it be a persistent one? If it is going to be a persistent one with pass-through effects,...
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