Recent data from the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) shows that about one-third of children in India is undernourished – 35.7 percent children below 5 years are underweight (too thin for age), 38.4 percent are stunted (too short for age) and 21.0 percent are wasted (too thin for height). It is also revealed that the level of anaemia among women and girls (aged 15-49 years) has stagnated marginally over the...

-Livemint.com Wholesale prices of just-harvested kharif pulses have dropped below the government’s minimum support prices (MSP) despite a lower crop output New Delhi: Wholesale prices of just harvested kharif pulses have dropped below the government’s minimum support prices (MSP) despite a lower crop output, forcing farmers to sell their produce at a loss in states such as Rajasthan. For instance, price data from wholesale markets available on the Agmarket website showed that on...

-Frontline Low prices following a bumper crop and the State government’s inability to procure much of the yield leave tur farmers in Maharashtra in a quandary. DROUGHT or abundance, farmers seem to be perpetually doomed in Maharashtra. The most recent crisis unfolding in the agrarian segment is the crashing prices of pulses, particularly tur dal, and the inability of the State government to procure the entire crop. Adding to the problem...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru: Prices of tur (red gram) continue to rule below the minimum support price (MSP) levels in Karnataka, though procurement of the pulses crop is seen registering a 10-fold increase in the current year over the previous high. As a result, the State is approaching the Centre to increase procurement by another 1.5 lakh tonnes while extending the purchase period by a month. “The procurement we have done this...

-Outlook In a pulses-importing country, a bumper crop brings little cheer to those who cultivate pulses. Here’s why In India, a bumper crop is not ­always an occasion to celebrate, as farmers have often found to their cost whether it is potato, onion or grapes. Pulses, which have always been far short of domestic needs, are facing a similar fate this year, with mandi prices in many parts of the country far...