-PTI NEW DELHI: India's farm subsidies are well below the WTO's cap of 10 per cent and the developed world should move ahead with finding a permanent solution for stock piling of grains for food security purposes, an official said. According to a WTO filing, India has given a total farm subsidy of $56 billion, of which trade distorting subsidy amounts to only $13.8 billion for 23 commodities, including rice and wheat. Explaining...

-Down to Earth Floods destroy standing crops; in July, hailstorm had damaged farms and orchards As floods washed away belongings of flood-affected people of Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has intervened to ensure food availability to them. Union food and public distribution minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, has directed senior officials of Food Corporation of India (FCI) to camp at Srinagar and closely monitor the availability of food grains in the affected areas...

-Niti Central India's western State Gujarat does not have a fertile land and most of its landscape is arid, even then the State has taken a big leap in agriculture sector by maintaining nearly 9 per cent of agricultural growth rate for nearly last one decade. Gujarat has written a success story despite being faced with challenges like depletion of water table, deterioration of soil and water conditions due to salinity...

-Women's Feature Service Tribal families in Bankura, West Bengal, living on a stable diet of potato and rice and occasionally some 'daal' (lentils), are now consuming a variety of vegetables, cereals, fruits and animal protein with relish on a daily basis, marking a sea change in the nutrition parametres in one of the most backward districts of India. The credit for this dramatic transformation goes to the dry land sustainable integrated farming...

-Down to Earth Area under cultivation of millets is declining in spite of national Food Security Mission While the Union government plans to restructure the Food Corporation of India (FCI), agriculture scientists and nutrition experts are recommending that effective millet management should be included in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of the country. The step is important to achieve the food and nutrition security for the small and marginal tribal farming communities,...