-Frontline The tussle within some Central government Ministries over proposed cuts in the budget for rural development schemes has affected a promise made to senior citizens. THEIR wizened faces said it all. Though there was disappointment, there was also a glimmer of hope that their trek to the national capital would not go in vain. For almost a month, senior citizens, most of them poor, had been pouring into New Delhi from...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-The Hindu Experts say people can keep diseases away if they consume millets Guntur (Andhra Pradesh): The two-day Millet Festival - 2014, aimed at popularising consuming low fat and high fibre millet began at Gunta Grounds here on Saturday. The festival is being held for the first time in districts outside Hyderabad in a bid to promote consumption of millet. Minister for Agriculture Kanna Lakshminarayana, Commissioner of Agriculture K. Madhusudhan Rao and College...

-Economic and Political Weekly Price spikes in onion in 2010 and 2013 brought little benefi t to farmers. It is the big traders who manage to maintain high stocks that make a killing in times of sudden price rise. The government's solutions to such problems have only resulted in the further deterioration of wholesale agricultural markets in many states. Kannan Kasturi (kasturi_kannan@yahoo.com) is an independent Researcher and writes on public interest and...

-Economic and Political Weekly   This article analyses the implications of the National Food Security Act for India's commitments under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture in the context of widespread concern that they might be mutually incompatible. An analysis of support to rice and wheat for the period 1995-2012 suggests that it is possible to leverage existing provisions in the Agreement to accommodate the current levels of operation. While India should negotiate...