-Hindustan Times Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the WTO will have to give a permanent solution to India’s food security issue. HT explains. * What has WTO got to do with food security? The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to facilitate trade among members, who now number at 161. The WTO facilitates trade through rounds of negotiations — there have been nine rounds till now, the latest being the...

-TheWire.in This year has been yet another bad one for the agriculture sector. With just 0.2% growth in the last quarter, a good monsoon was essential to revive the sector. However, a deficient monsoon worsened the situation and as many as nine states have been forced to declare a drought. With almost 60% of India’s workforce engaged in agriculture, the slowdown has immensely affected the rural economy. The rural distress has in...

-Livemint.com Telangana 9th state to declare drought, adding to the agrarian crisis and posing a threat to the rural economy New Delhi: Telangana has declared a drought in parts of the state, becoming the ninth state this year to do so, highlighting the agrarian crisis that could cause a likely fall in the production of rain-fed crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton, and result in a further slowing of the...

-Hindustan Times Arsenic contamination is spreading fast in 12 states and beyond, with around one lakh people already dead and the chemical entering the food chain through farm products in the region, a committee of secretaries in a report to the government has said. The committee has also estimated that 7.04 crore people have been affected, with around three lakh people having arsenic-related diseases in the country. Of them, the report said,...

-Business Standard Because of low yields, pulses accounts for less than 10% of India's annual foodgrains output, though it occupies 20% of area under foodgrains New Delhi: As the country grapples with recurring increase in pulses price, scientists at the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) have come up with a solution to address the shortage in the commodity. Scientists at Kanpur-based Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), an affiliate organisation of ICAR,...