-Women's Feature Service The ‘gola' or grain basket, built on elevated ground in Goyadham village in Sunderban's South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, is central to the food security of several households here. As Sofia Bibi, 45, says, "The grain is protected from the recurrent flooding and storms and we are ensured of a regular supply when there is no agricultural work during the months of September to November and March to...

-Reuters NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India looks set for bumper harvests of winter crops such as wheat, chickpeas and rapeseed in the wake of a strong monsoon that has left the soil moist and topped up reservoirs. The crops will follow bountiful summer harvests of rice and soybeans due to the rains, with New Delhi looking to boost agricultural growth to cool double-digit food inflation and revive a slowing economy as manufacturing struggles. With next...

-The Hindu     Realising that New Delhi needs to clear its food security legislation at the WTO in time for the election, the West has sought increased market access in return for temporary relief A few months ago, the most optimistic observers of international politics were not willing to hedge their bets on the Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organisation. The Doha Round negotiations have been stalled for more than a...

-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: Indian companies have acquired land more than nine times the size of Delhi on foreign shores, as cultivable land at home is lost to urbanisation, industry and infrastructure projects. Land Matrix, a global land monitoring initiative that tracks land dealings worldwide, placed India among the top 10 countries that have acquired large tracts of land abroad, primarily for agriculture, in Africa and Asia. The country ranks eighth,...

-The Business Standard Contrary to earlier claims, farm growth may be robust The projection by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) of robust agricultural growth of above five per cent and a consequential handsome rise in rural incomes comes as a silver lining to India's otherwise gloomy economic scene. The CACP's reckoning, based on a rigorous mathematical model, virtually discounts the agriculture ministry's kharif crop output estimates (called first advance...