Demanding waiver of farm loans of rain-hit farmers in Orissa and relaxation of paddy standard for procurement, the Congress on Sunday asked the Centre to form a monitoring committee to supervise utilisation of its assistance for the distressed farmers. The Centre should form a committee to monitor and supervise utilisation of its assistance for the farmers whose crops have been damaged due to untimely rains in Odisha, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee...

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was chosen CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Veteran Agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan has been conferred the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award for his “outstanding leadership in the field of agriculture that has contributed to ensuring food security for millions of Indians.” Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the award to Dr. Swaminathan at a function here. Dr. Swaminathan, a statement from...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday denied that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sought his explanations on the rising prices of onions and other Agricultural commodities. In a brief chat with the media persons on the sidelines of the two-day “Coop Core – 2010,” heralding the nationwide launch of the core banking solutions (CBS) for the urban cooperative banks, which began here on Saturday, Mr. Pawar said he too had...

Officials of the Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, have said that the prices of rabi maize and sunflower are likely to remain stable till harvest. While the assessment has been made with regard to maize based on the data collected from Jamkhandi market, the leading market for maize for the past 15 years, the likely price for sunflower post harvest has been...

Be it a bumper or lean season __ life for Karnataka's farmers remains unchanged as they are exploited by middlemen. While last week came as a boon to onion farmers as prices skyrocketed in an unprecedented manner, it all came to an end on Wednesday following the government's decision to stop exports until January 15 to contain the rates here, resulting in a sudden drop in per quintal rates and sending...