Farmers always wonder how the price of produce shoots up the moment it leaves their hands. The crop in their hands is quoted below the MSP (minimum support price). A week or two later, prices in the secondary and tertiary markets skyrocket, leaving fruits of their labour somewhere else.

Andhra Pradesh will request a Central assistance of Rs 3,006 crore towards drought relief according to the revised norms, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, has said.

While seeking liberal assistance, the Chief Minister told a nine-member Central team that the State would send a revised request soon. The team had visited the affected districts and met the Chief Minister and various Government officials today at the Secretariat.

He also said the State Government sought Rs 120 a quintal as bonus towards MSP for foodgrains.

Geneva: The EU-India FTA could be disastrous for the farm sector in India, if the demands of the EU negotiators would be accepted, according to a joint study by NGOs Misereror, Glopolis, the Heinrich Boll foundation and the Third World Network (TWN). The report pionts out that it would violate the right to food of a vast segment in India which rely on the poultry and dairy sectors. Opponents of the EU demands see losses for the Indian economy- particularly in retail and agriculture. It is contrary to WTO rules, which advocate lower tariffs rather than removing them.

Investment and price assurance for farmers will yield the results that have eluded our policymakers so far. India has been striving to achieve 4% growth rate in farm output since the beginning of Ninth Five-Year Plan. However, actual growth rate has remained invariably lower than the targeted growth rate. Further, agriculture witnessed a sharp slowdown during mid-1990s to the middle of the first decade of 21st century. Annual growth rate in farm GDP declined to 2.4% a year during 1995-96 to 2004-05 from more than 3% in the previous decade.

Groundwater in the entire areas has turned saline, say protesters

Residents of Neendakara and Ezhupunna in the northern tip of the district have joined hands to protest against the large-scale aquaculture farms in their region, which they say has not only brought paddy farming to a halt in the area, but also rendered the entire groundwater table there saline.

KOLKATA, 7 FEB: Although Tata Motors Limited (TML) and the vendors are similarly placed, the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act discriminates between the two, counsel of the vendors at TML's Singur site, Mr SK Kapur, submitted before the Division Bench of Mr Justice Pinaki Ghosh and Mr Justice Mrinalkanti Choudhury of Calcutta High Court today.

State BJP chief spokesperson Vijesh Lunawat said that the State budget preparations are an ambitious attempt for the development of the agricultural resources which will create a new attraction amongst the farmers. The format of the State budget expresses the concerns regarding the provision of water at dry land, provide quality electricity facilities, increase the commercial industries for farmers and growth in plan expenditure for planned development.

In a decision that is likely to benefit rice farmers of West Bengal, an Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday is learnt to have decided to allow foodgrain exports to Bangladesh through specified points across border. The decision is likely to benefit exporters by reducing transportation costs and also farmers from West Bengal, Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh from where private traders may source the foodgrain for export.

The impact of climate change needs to be factored in development programmes so as to tackle the long-term requirement of mitigation and adaptation. This was highlighted at an international conference on Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture and Public Leadership here on Tuesday.

Underscoring the need for adopting a multidimensional strategy, Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat appealed to agriculture scientists to document the indigenous wisdom of Indian farmers who had been adapting to climatic variability over the centuries.