-Livemint.com Both fertilizer and agrochemical companies are highly dependent on imports for raw materials. With rupee depreciation exacerbating the rise in prices of raw materials, the profitability of the companies is expected to take a hit this year The forecast of a record foodgrain production in the ongoing kharif season has brought no cheer to agricultural inputs stocks. Shares of Rallis India Ltd lost 3% last week. Dhanuka Agritech Ltd slumped 12%....

-Livemint.com The actual determination of MSP is driven by a ‘business as usual’ practice of incremental increases in line with past trend, combined with the political need for ‘look good’ optics The recent increase in the minimum support prices (MSP) for major kharif crops has reignited the debate about food price policy. Some analysts believe that the increase has been excessive, that it will push up inflation, both directly and also indirectly...

-The Hindu Report says it’s consumers who benefit from them more than farmers Despite the general perception that Indian farmers are beneficiaries of major subsidies, a new report says the overall effect of policy interventions between 2014 and 2016 is, in fact, a 6% annual reduction of gross farm revenues. Consumers, on the other hand, pay an average 25% less for commodities as a result of policy interventions. According to researchers at the...

-Livemint.com While there are several creditable achievements, it is the deeper structural reforms where expectations from a strong government have not been met Amidst expectations of a magical transformation of the Indian economy, the Narendra Modi government took over the reins in May 2014. During the election campaign, people were led to believe that the Gujarat model of agricultural development, which delivered 8% growth in agriculture during fiscal years 2003-14, would be...

-Livemint.com India’s weather office has forecast a normal monsoon. Bountiful rains in the June-to-September period are critical for about 800 million Indians who depend directly or indirectly on farming New Delhi: Gangabhishan Thaware, a 53-year-old farmer from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra, took an unusual step in July last year. Thaware and his fellow villagers had toiled on their fields and spent thousands of rupees on seeds and fertilizers, hopeful...