-The Times of India PUNE: Two farmers were killed, one of them in police firing, while three policemen were injured and an unspecified number of vehicles were either damaged or burnt after an agitation by sugarcane farmers for higher prices for their crop turned violent in western Maharashtra on Monday. Chandrakant Nalawade, a small farmer from Vasagade village in Sangli, was killed when police opened fire to control the agitating farmers after...

-The Business Standard Turning the country's food procurement agency into an international trader will fan inflation and hunger At a time when the Global Hunger Index 2012 ranks India 65th among 79 countries, K V Thomas, minister of state for food and public distribution and consumer affairs, has revealed that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will soon trade wheat in the futures market. Seeking clearance from the Forward Markets Commission, the...

-The Indian Express Economy Govt drafts plan to boost farming, allied sectors with Central fund. Kolkata: To boost the state’s economy, the Trinamool Congress government has set up an ambitious target of 8 per cent growth rate in agriculture and allied sectors for the next fiscal year. The current growth rate in agriculture is a mere 2.6 per cent. A draft proposal prepared by the Agriculture Department on the ways to achieve the...

-The Economic Times AHMEDABAD: Wheat output may remain stable this season due to remunerative prices and sufficient water availability. However, agriculture officials feel that the delay in announcing wheat MSP for rabi season might deter farmers. "We don't see a drop in wheat acreage this year and the production should clock similar to that of previous year's 93.90 million tonne. It will be too early to say that the area will increase...

-The Times of India SURI: A clash between farmers and policemen at the site of a mining project in Birbhum left 37 people injured on Tuesday and conjured up images of Nandigram, opening a new frontier in Bengal's bloody land battles. The protesters alleged police opened fire when they refused to let them take away earth-moving equipment brought in by a coal mining company. The equipment was stranded at the site after...