For once, it is a happy farewell to the monsoon. An indulgent rain god, who overstayed for a week to compensate two successive years of drought in Jharkhand, today departed with the golden promise of a bumper winter yield. Weathermen at the Patna Meteorological Office confirmed that the monsoon trough had become weak after October 11, but faded away only today. “The rains have officially withdrawn from Jharkhand. But several parts of...

Hard To Ignore...     * Farmers of East Godavari and West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh have declared a crop holiday this kharif season     * No paddy will be sown across 1.5 lakh acres in the two districts     * Farmers are demanding better minimum support price and subsidies on inputs     * They say the rising cost of inputs causes farmers to lose Rs 10,000-15,000 per acre     * If the farmers stick...

-The Business Standard   The government’s move to allow an additional 0.5 million tonnes of sugar exports on top of one million tonnes permitted earlier is well intended. However, the total permissible exports are still not enough to adequately slash unsustainable inventories and improve the economic health of the sugar industry so that it can clear the mounting cane price dues. Given the robust rebound in sugar production in the current season (October...

From next year, atta,bread,biscuits ,snacks and everything made from maida and sooji will become seriously more expensive. Even after a bumper crop, there just won't be enoughwheat for us. ET helps you join the dots. The trigger for wheat inflation that will hit each one of us is the Food Security Act, which kickstarts next year. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will need substantially more wheat to supply three...

The government’s latest estimates show that foodgrain production in the crop year 2010-11 rose sharply by 10.75% to a record 241.56 million tonnes (mt), a move that could potentially have a dampening effect on inflationary expectations. The impressive increase led by wheat, maize and pulses is revealed in the final estimates for 2010-11, and is partially explained by the fact that 2009-10 was a drought year. The crop year extends from July...