-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: In a big shift in the food security policy, the government is set to include crops other than wheat and rice that are now more in demand due to higher incomes and changing nutritional requirements. This will mean greater production of crops such as pulses, subsidy for fertilisers for other crops and incentivising farmers to diversify the crop basket. The Niti Aayog could drive the change in...

-The Indian Express In wheat, the situation has been worsened by stocks with FCI — at 18.84 million tonnes (mt) as on November 1 — at a nine-year low. New Delhi: Wheat prices have spiralled, reflecting the precarious domestic stocks position and concerns over production of new crop because farmers are unable to arrange sufficient cash for cultivation operations, following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. Wheat was sold...

-The Financial Express There is by now substantial agreement amongst analysts that a strategy for dal production which ensures supplies and a reasonable degree of self-reliance is sorely needed, and the country cannot go from one crisis to another without a well-worked-out policy. However, the discussion is flawed on its assessments of what governments can and cannot do and on the lack of a short and medium strategy to enhance production....

-The Indian Express The effects of de-monetisation will be the most acute when it spreads from consumption in households to production in factories and by farmers across the country. So far, the effects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘de-monetisation’ of existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currency notes have been largely felt by households, shopkeepers and other microenterprises. These economic agents have, to a limited extent, adjusted to the new situation...

-Hindustan Times Nabha: After a tumultuous demand for alternatives to stubble-burning, the departments seem to have come into action. Officials are visiting the farmers, who gave up stubble-burning and adopted alternative methods on their own, to see the viability of the methods. The agriculture development department highlighted a new instrument made by New Gurdeep Combines, which is fixed at the back of a harvester combine. It trims the stubble into small...