-Financial Express Higher sowing augurs well for bountiful wheat and oilseed production The resilience of India’s agricultural sector has been a positive factor in the India growth story. During the ongoing rabi season, the average area sown for wheat is up by 25%, to 25.5 million hectares as of December 9, from a year earlier. Area under oilseeds, too, is at record levels. All of this augurs well for bumper rabi crops...

-Financial Express Traders told FE that for mustard, the biggest domestic oilseed variety, prices at Bharatpur mandi, Rajasthan, are currently ruling around Rs 6,800 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 5,050 a quintal, while wheat in Sehore mandi, Madhya Pradesh, is currently being sold at Rs 2,150 a quintal against MSP of Rs 2,015 a quintal. As market arrivals have peaked, mandi prices of key rabi crops — wheat and mustard...

-Financial Express Directions have been issued to ensure that all the cane in the area is crushed and if the sugar mill is not in a position to do this, the mill should coordinate with other mills in the neighbouring area. Maharashtra’s sugar commissioner has issued a notification warning sugar mills against shutting down operations without informing the Commissionerate and giving prior notice to farmers. The move comes in the wake of...

-The Hindu Business Line Potato production in Bengal is estimated to be higher by nearly 16 per cent at 110 lakh tonnes this year, as compared to 95 lakh tonnes in 2020 Potato prices in West Bengal have dropped by nearly 50 per cent in less than two months on the back of excess production in key producing regions including Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Gujarat. Wholesale price of the tuber (Jyoti variety)...

-Down to Earth Exceptional growth in agriculture and acreage in kharif season precipitate a crisis like never before for farmers   In recent times, agriculture made headlines for all the wrong reasons: Farmers quitting cultivation; the sector turning into a perennial loss-making enterprise; and the country’s official policy to downsize the dependence on agriculture to reduce overall economic hardship among the poorest of the population. Agriculture’s fast-declining economic importance reached such an extent...