-The Economic Times The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for the kharif season in a range of 16% to 53% to motivate farmers and compensate for higher input costs but the higher purchase prices could stoke food inflation further. The Committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA) on Thursday raised the MSP of paddy by Rs 170 per quintal and those of oilseeds like groundnut, sunflower seed and niger seed...
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Climate change threatens agriculture, but genomics comes to rescue-Hari Pulakkat
-The Economic Times Kulvinder Gill, professor of breeding and genetics at the Washington State University in the US, describes himself as a dreamer and an optimist. One of his dreams is to make sure food production does not decline over the next few decades, when increasing temperatures act on the yields of major crops. Specifically, he is beginning a project with six other organisations in India to make wheat less sensitive to...
More »Higher prices likely to cut fertiliser demand 10-15 %-Rituraj Tiwari
-The Economic Times Rising fertiliser prices may lead to a drop in demand by 10-15 % this kharif season. The impact will be more on diammonium phosphate (DAP) whose prices are likely to double over last season. DAP prices have gone up from Rs 12,000 a tonne last kharif to over Rs 18,000 a tonne and are likely to be revised to Rs 24,000 within a couple of weeks. "Yes, there are...
More »Slight delay in monsoon onset won’t impact farm prospects: Farm secy-Banikinkar Pattanayak
A delay in the onset of monsoon by 3-4 days over the Kerala coast won’t jeopardise India’s farm prospects in the crop year starting June 1 as sowing usually picks up with the arrival of the seasonal showers, according to outgoing agriculture secretary P K Basu. In an interview, Basu told FE that the rainfall in June, however, holds the key. ‘‘If there are scanty showers in June, sowing may be...
More »Why drought reigns eternal-Sunita Narain
It is mostly caused by deliberate neglect and designed failure of the way we manage water and land It’s drought time again. Nothing new in this announcement. Each year, first we have crippling droughts between December and June, and then devastating floods in the next few months. It’s a cycle of despair, which is more or less predictable. But this is not an inevitable cycle of nature we must live...
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