-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The government is ready with a contingency plan to deal with below normal rains this monsoon with a series of steps including diesel subsidy for farmers in the rain-deficient districts, crop loans at lower rates and release of foodgrains to deal with a possible shortage. Amid reports of below normal rains, the agriculture ministry presented the plan for 500 districts during a meeting called by Prime...

-Mail Today   New Delhi: And this dread scenario could well unfold, with the Met prediction of a below-normal monsoon on Monday being underlined by Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh who admitted that the forecast is of below-average rainfall. Precipitation in the June-September period is expected to be between 90 and 96 per cent of the long-term average, added the minister. What he didn't say was that the India Meteorological Department...

-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 Business Standard   A totally novel method needed to procure and disburse food Unbundling the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by hiving it into three separate entities for procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrain seems prima facie an unsound proposition. It would lead to a multiplicity of food handling agencies; the proliferation of bureaucracy would cause procedural delays and poor coordination. Administrative expenses, which are already high and bloating the Food Subsidy...

-The Diplomat   Climate change is stressing an already struggling farm sector, but there is a way forward. Over the last decade, India's official position in global climate negotiations has been one of opposition to agricultural mitigation. At Doha (COP18), India joined other developing countries in demanding that any talk about agriculture must be in the realm of adaptation, not mitigation. India considers the farm sector out of bounds with respect to emissions...