-Reuters Cotton farmer Ravindra Krishna Patil in Maharashtra should be feeling flush after strong monsoon rains and a good crop, but high costs have cast a pall over his preparations for the festive season. Instead of splashing out on gold jewellery, appliances or maybe even a car during the biggest shopping season of the year, 28-year-old Patil must count his rupees after costs of everything from fuel to labour soared while cotton...

The pile of jute sticks arranged cone-like and glistening in the sun stood tall over the congregation as they offered prayers at the janaja of Syed Ali. It was around noon, the time Ali died yesterday, felled by a police bullet in the head. He and other jute cultivators had gathered at the Bechimari weekly market like they did every Monday with their produce of jute fibre; fibre that is meticulously shorn...

-The United Nations   A United Nations human rights expert today called for taxing unhealthy food, regulating harmful marketing practices and standing up to the food industry, urging world leaders not to miss the chance at a summit next week to end a state of affairs that kills nearly 3 million adults each year. “Voluntary guidelines are not enough. World leaders must not bow to industry pressure,” Special Rapporteur on the Right to...

Production to drop drastically this kharif season Pulses and oilseeds are likely to be dearer, particularly to the middle class and poor as their production is likely to go down drastically in the ongoing kharif season in the State. Scanty rainfall in the beginning of southwest monsoon season is the reason for lower coverage of various crops. As per the first advance production estimates prepared by the Bureau of Economics and Statistics...

-The Hindu Business Line   The uncertainty over adopting agricultural biotechnology is in no one's interest, given the high food inflation and dependence on imports. With food inflation climbing once again above 10 per cent, it has become even more urgent for the government to provide a a clear mandate in terms of policy support, the technology options and requisite investment for domestic agriculture. Output growth, especially of proteins, has been decisively trailing...