-Economic and Political Weekly Price spikes in onion in 2010 and 2013 brought little benefi t to farmers. It is the big traders who manage to maintain high stocks that make a killing in times of sudden price rise. The government's solutions to such problems have only resulted in the further deterioration of wholesale agricultural markets in many states. Kannan Kasturi (kasturi_kannan@yahoo.com) is an independent researcher and writes on public interest and...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Rice and shine -Dnyanesh Jathar
-The Week A revolutionary farming system is working wonders in Nalanda district Nalanda: If not for an agricultural technique known as SRI (system of rice intensification), Sumant Kumar of Darveshpura in Bihar's Nalanda district would have remained a faceless farmer. In 2012, with the help of the state agriculture department, he tried out SRI on an acre that usually bore only modest yields. It worked, and Sumant got a bumper harvest. An...
More »Why food prices stay up-Mayank Mishra & Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-The Business Standard The Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee law allows mandis to remain in the grip of a middlemen cartel, with clear links to politicians who run the governments Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has, in effect, told chief ministers of party-ruled states that if food inflation is to be controlled, as many items as possible must be got out of the purview of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act. For the time...
More »Government Cuts Onion MEP to USD 150 a Tonne
-Outlook Government today reduced minimum export price (MEP) of onion to USD 150 a tonne from USD 350 to boost shipments and check sharp fall in domestic prices that has led to farmers protest in producing states. This is the third downward revision of onion MEP, the benchmark price below which the commodity can not be exported, this month. On December 16, the Centre had reduced it to USD 800 a tonne...
More »Now, onion over-supply leads to crisis -Dipak Kumar Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government seems to be facing another onion crisis. If just a month ago it was scarcity and high prices that forced the government to almost stop export, this time abundant production and crashing prices is likely to cause unrest among onion growers ahead of the general election. There were reports of farmers halting business in Nashik on Tuesday as the wholesale price touched Rs 9.5...
More »