-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-The Hindu Business Line Price double in key wholesale markets; Consumer Affairs Ministry suggests floor price for Exports New Delhi/Mumbai: To check spiralling prices of onions and ease supplies, the Centre has decided to import 2,000 tonnes of onions through the State-owned MMTC while two other agencies, Nafed and SFAC, will source 12,000 tonnes locally, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said. A floor price of $700 per tonne on...

-The Indian Express Onion farmers have suffered even in a bumper crop year. Needed: Scientific storage facilities, a judicious trade policy. Onions are, once again, in the news. Last week, retail prices touched Rs 50/kg in several markets, and wholesale prices touched Rs 30/kg in major onion markets like Lasalgaon in Maharashtra. This is not the first time that onion prices have spiked. Almost every alternate year, this roller-coaster of boom and...

-The Hindu Business Line The global pulse trade is in a tailspin. After living in a comfort zone provided by India in the form of a large ready market for long years, pulse exporting nations — many of them cultivating the leguminous crop with India as the primary target market — are now forced to grapple with new ground realities. To be sure, not only has India, the world’s largest producer, processor,...

-Livemint.com In India, 9 million people left farming between 2001 and 2011 largely due to distress, not because industry invited them, says Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the FAO Shyam Khadka, India’s representative at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, says more Indians are moving out of agriculture due to distress and not because the manufacturing sector is inviting them. In an interview, Khadka calls for converting food...