-The Indian Express Agriculture Ministry’s harvest estimates don’t square with drought conditions in several cases, raise serious questions of credibility. We have had two consecutive drought years, yet India’s milk production, according to the Agriculture Ministry, has risen from 137.69 million tonnes (mt) in 2013-14 to 146.31 mt in 2014-15 and 160.35 mt in 2015-16. Never before has the country’s milk output grown at these rates — that too, in the face...

-Down to Earth Desperate to check growing prices, the country plans to encourage domestic players to grow pulses in Myanmar despite having bad experiences in the past Faced with shortage of pulses and increasing prices, India plans to encourage private companies to acquire land for exclusively growing pulses in Myanmar and supply them back to India. Myanmar is the largest exporter of pulses to India. According to a senior agriculture ministry...

-The Hindu As cereal consumption comes down despite higher output, India needs to ramp up production of pulses to meet the nutritional requirements of the population. Since the onset of the Green Revolution in the late 1960s, India has been treading on a path towards self-sufficiency in food. The achievements have remained highly skewed towards wheat and rice on account of technological as well as policy support towards these two crops. With...

-The Indian Express Agriculture needs a champion in the Union cabinet. July, this year, marks the silver jubilee of economic reforms. It is time to take stock of our major successes and failures. There is a saying that bad times are often good for policies and good times are bad for policies. It is well-known that the foreign exchange crisis, with reserves falling to as low as $1.5 billion, triggered fundamental changes...

-PTI New Delhi: Under pressure to control pulses prices, the Centre is hopeful of clinching a long-term deal with Mozambique for assured supply of lentils after the two countries had positive talks last week. Indian delegations last week visited pulses growing nations, Mozambique and Myanmar, to explore government-to- government arrangement for assured supply of lentils, especially tur, on a long term basis. "The delegation is back with long term solution in sight. The...