-PTI Amid reports that potato and onion farmers were dumping their produce due to fall in prices, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today assured Parliament that a scheme is in place to share the loss incurred by the growers.  The Agriculture Ministry implements a Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), after it receives proposals from state government on the need for procurement of agricultural and horticultural crops, Pawar said in a reply to a query...

-PTI Expressing concern over price rise in fruit and vegetables, the government today said it will focus on addressing the issue by bringing more area under horticulture as well as raising productivity levels.  "We are more or less comfortable in cereal production. The growth rate in horticultural and animal products is good and better than cereals. But we see price rise in horticulture commodities. This is the area of concern," Agriculture Secretary...

The government is planning to come up with a price protection fund to cushion the burden of food subsidy, which is expected to grow manifold under the new Food Security Bill. The proposed fund, under the ministry of food and consumer affairs, is a Budget proposal for 2012-13. Officials said the framework of the fund was at a nascent stage. “Some inferences are being drawn from the recommendation of National Farmers’ Commission...

Odisha village gets pattas after nearly half a century. Land reform programmes get jumpstart They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not always true. Ask Arakhita Pradhan, resident of Chilipoi village in Odisha’s Ganjam district. On a cold evening some 44 years ago, the authorities forcefully shifted him and his neighbours to a place where no civic amenities existed. Reason: the state had built an irrigation dam that...

“Believe me, I am not making any of this up,” insists Asim Saha brother of Amiya Saha, who killed himself after consuming a bottle of pesticide a month ago after failing to find buyers for the paddy he had harvested, when he speaks of the events that occurred on the fateful night and the paddy that remains unsold at their home in Rajpur village in the West Bengal's Bardhaman district. The...