-The Hindu Business Line This kharif, with its high pulses output, provides an opportunity to push procurement, processing — and lift curbs on exports Pulses have been in the news over the last one year and for all the wrong reasons. Sharply lower harvests two years in a row (2014-15 and 2015-16) due to a below-normal southwest monsoon in the kharif season and unseasonal rains during the rabi harvest combined with rising...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: The Centre is hoping to achieve a growth rate of 8 per cent in the economy and 4 per cent in the agriculture sector this year. “We are growing at the rate of 7 per cent and this year we hope our agriculture growth will be more than 4 per cent,” Arjun Meghwal, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, has said. Addressing the valedictory...

-The Indian Express But per capita meat consumption remains relatively low. This has implications for nutritional and food security. In the eyes of the world, India is seen as a vegetarian country. Presumably, this impression has been created by our best brand ambassadors from political, spiritual and yoga circles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a strict vegetarian. The popular yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, and many other Hindu religious leaders too, are vegetarians...

-PTI New Delhi: India has called for creating a level playing field for developing countries in agri-trade to safeguard livelihood of millions of poor farmers. The issue, among others, was discussed during the mini-ministerial gathering of key Trade Ministers of WTO in Oslo on October 21-22. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman represented India. In the meeting, she “underlined the need for creating a level playing field for the developing countries in agricultural trade...

Expanding irrigation network in the country is considered as essential to raise agricultural production in the face of increased frequency of droughts. However, a newly released report from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare shows that there has actually been a fall in the growth rate of net irrigated area during the recent two decades. The report entitled State of Indian Agriculture 2015-16 reveals that the growth rate in...