-Economic and Political Weekly Why has pulse production stagnated despite measures to boost production being well known? This season, the prices of pulses (dals) have been on fire. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, the average retail price of red gram (tuar) doubled from around Rs 80 a kg in March 2015 to Rs 150–Rs 160 a kg in November 2015. What could...
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Another year of dal crisis looms, govt takes stock -Dipak K Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Preparing to tide over another year of shortage in availability of pulses, particularly arhar dal that triggered a crisis, private importers have informed government of their intention to import nearly 5.5 million tonnes (MTs) of pulses next year in comparison to about 4.5 MTs in 2015. Government will also increase the import besides carrying out direct procurement from farmers to create a stock. Sources said private importers...
More »Rural Distress: Back-to-back drought adds to the woes -Sahil Makkar, Sanjeeb Mukherjee & Nirmalya Behera
-Business Standard The well-irrigated states of Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, western Uttar Pradesh and coastal states such as Odisha are, for the first time, feeling the effects of a poor monsoon Bhopal/ New Delhi/ Bhubaneshwar: Farmers are faced with a multitude of problems. Cotton and basmati rice growers in Punjab and sugarcane farmers in west UP are under stress due to the non-payment of insurance and state compensation. Growers in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh,...
More »New high-yield arhar variety could solve pulses shortage -Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard Because of low yields, pulses accounts for less than 10% of India's annual foodgrains output, though it occupies 20% of area under foodgrains New Delhi: As the country grapples with recurring increase in pulses price, scientists at the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) have come up with a solution to address the shortage in the commodity. Scientists at Kanpur-based Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), an affiliate organisation of ICAR,...
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-The Indian Express The reality of rural distress is sinking in only now for policymakers. There can be no better illustration of the vagaries of the weather than Chennai’s streets being inundated with water and the second India-South Africa cricket test in Bangalore suffering washout due to rains, even as drought stalks much of the country. That really is the case today, with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, southern and coastal Karnataka, Rayalaseema...
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