-The Business Standard   Food Corporation to restrict procurement of foodgrain from states announcing additional sops In a crackdown on the practice of states announcing bonuses on the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and rice, the Centre has said Food Corporation of India (FCI) will restrict procurement of foodgrain from such states. This will be effective from the coming rice procurement (October 2014-September 2015) and wheat procurement (April 2015-March 2016) seasons. If states...

-PTI   The group has also urged the govt to constitute a national-level Commission, which looks into measures to prevent farmer suicides Nagpur: Farmers in the Maharashtra's Vidarbha region have demanded a Rs 30,000 crore development package from the upcoming Union Budget. In view of the neglected farmers, it was high time that the central government looks at agrarian crisis seriously in Vidarbha and announce a hefty development package, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS)...

-The Indian Express   Farmers' groups point to lack of marketing support, MSAMB blames internal shortcomings. Pune: Almost two years after the state government introduced the concept of direct selling of fruits and vegetables by farmers' groups, lack of awareness drives and internal shortcomings seem to have impeded its success. At present, 68 farmers' groups are directly selling their products at 226 locations in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The initiative to allow farmers to directly...

-The Business Standard   Millet is not only a rich source of nutrition but also mitigates climate change. It's time it was treated on a par with wheat and rice Dubbed by the health-savvy as nutri-grains, millet has been the victim of uncalled-for neglect. It has gradually been eased out of farmers' fields as well as from consumers' menu because of ill-advised procurement and price support policies. Even those who traditionally consumed millet,...

-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...