-The Hindu With the U.S. showing a preference for plurilateral agreements over WTO multilateralism, developing nations must defend the global trading system against transnational corporations The 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which also marked the completion of two decades of functioning of the most recent of the multilateral institutions, ended with an agreement among trade ministers of the member countries that may have pushed the organisation to the...

-Business Standard In November, the government decides to transfer Rs 4.5 a quintal production incentive to bank accounts of sugarcane Farmers Two months ago, the Centre after much deliberation decided to transfer Rs 4.50 a quintal directly into the bank accounts of sugarcane growers. The government called this a production incentive, but it is seen by many as an attempt to kill several birds with one stone. An incentive directly transferred into the...

-Business Standard India exports onion largely to Saudi Arabia, Colombo and some other far-east countries with an estimated annual volume of 1.5 million tonnes Onion prices have started firming up, in the wake of the government’s move to abolish minimum export price (MEP) on the vegetable. While most markets in Maharashtra remained closed on account of Christmas and other festivals, prices of onion in Delhi markets moved up by Rs 100 to Rs...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: A third-generation Farmer from a village in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra has found mention in the state revenue minister's address to the legislative council as an example for other Farmers to emulate if they want to ward off penury and disaster. Sanjay Gandate, 31, now cultivates pearls in his 900sqm freshwater pond and leads the charge of innovation in the belt that is battling low-agricultural...

-The Indian Express The Central government’s move to fix cotton seed prices and trait fees sends wrong signals. 2015 will go down as a year that has seen all the rules of free trade being given the go-by when it comes to agriculture. The lead for it, significantly, has come from the Centre, whether in the form of not allowing exports of onion at below $ 700 a tonne or imposing stockholding...