-The Hindu Business Line     A set of technologies that deals with production and marketing constraints can work wonders Indian agriculture faces herculean challenges today; yet, the near- and the medium-term outlook on agriculture and agri-businesses seem bright. Growing urbanisation and changing food habits, malnutrition plus declining areas under foodgrain pose a big threat to food security. Agriculture and food production are strongly influenced by international trade, credit availability, development co-operation, climate change and environmental...

-The Business Standard     They were unimpressed by the UPA's misguided socialism, but they worry about the new regime's free-market orientation too Consider this paradox. The Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was decimated in the elections in spite of several years of good monsoon and rising agricultural production. Consider another paradox. This was the regime that implemented policies that were presumed to be pro-farmer: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the...

-The Hindu   96 agriculture students are taking part in Polika-2014 in Wayanad district SULTHAN BATHERY (Kerala): They conducted a participatory appraisal after visiting farmers' houses in the Sulthan Bathery grama panchayat and an assessment of the resources of the community. These 96 final-semester B.Sc. Agriculture (Honours) students, including 21 boys and 75 girls, of the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, under the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), are attending Polika-2014. The 10-day village stay programme...

-Down to Earth   Demand minimum support price of above Rs 2,000 per 100 kg; say present MSP does not meet even cost of cultivation Maharashtra government has recently announced the minimum support price for wheat at Rs 1,400 per quintal (100 kg). The decision has not gone down well with either the farmers or the agriculture department. Farmers in the state have questioned the rationale behind this low MSP, saying that such...

-Financial Chronicle   Forecasts on possible monsoon behaviour are not very encouraging. There is a possibility of El Nino factors causing further problems. More recently, our farmers in parts of north and central India experienced the fury of hailstorms and heavy rains. Climate change further complicates the possibility of providing accurate advance estimates of monsoon behaviour. This is not only true in our country, but also around the world. California, for example,...