-Livemint.com Repeated price shocks take the sheen off horticulture crops grown by small and marginal farmers New Delhi: In the past few years, horticulture crops emerged as a favourite for small growers across the country. 2016-17 marks the fifth straight year when production of fruits and vegetables is estimated to surpass that of foodgrains. This signals a fundamental shift in India’s farm economy towards a growing share of horticulture crops, which now...
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Farming goes to seed -Jayshree Sengupta
-The Tribune Demonetisation didn’t overly impact the sector, but devitalisation is a concern THERE has been a lot of speculation about the extent of damage due to demonetisation on agriculture. Small farmers suffered most because cash in hand means a lot to them. They were unable to pay for inputs like fertilisers, seeds and farm labour and experienced low demand for their perishable produce. The latest data from government’s agricultural ministry however...
More »Retail inflation cools to 5-year low of 3.2% in January
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Retail inflation cooled to five-year low in January on the back of sliding vegetable and food prices but the lurking price pressure may prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain a wait-and-watch policy on interest rate for now. Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday showed inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), rose 3.2% in January, slower than...
More »Cotton farmers counting the losses -Rutam Vora, KV Kurmanath and Vishwanath Kulkarni
-The Hindu Business Line Rising pest attacks are mounting pressure on cotton farmers even as prices play truant. Rajeshbhai Patel is not amused. The farmer in Kadi, northern Gujarat grew cotton on four bigha in this year’s kharif season, instead of 11 in 2016. He had reduced the acreage fearing increasing costs owing to pests attacks. But as cotton prices rule at unusually high levels in the ongoing harvest season, he...
More »Drawing up a diet plan -Sonalde Desai
-The Hindu The welfare challenge lies in providing assistance to needy households to ensure adequate diets without creating conditions in which they opt for inferior diets that are too heavy on cereals With the Kerala government’s decision to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from April, the whole country will be covered by the legislation. However, if we expect the NFSA to improve India’s malnutrition statistics, we may well be disappointed....
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