Harish Damodaran

Agriculture being a state subject under the Constitution, any central legislation seeking to remove barriers to trade and creating a unified national market for farm produce could trigger a fresh debate on federalism.

Third tranche of COVID-19 economic package: Not only can farmers sell to anyone and anywhere, but traders and processors, too, will be able to freely buy, stock and move any quantity of agri-produce within the country.

MGNREGA employment down more than half in April. Currently, out of the 13.74 crore MNREGS job cards issued, only 7.66 crore are “active”.

A technology that allows farmers to sow paddy seeds directly could be a solution to shortage of migrant transplantation labourers during lockdown. It also saves water by not requiring flooding of fields.

UP mills have, in the current 2019-20 sugar season (October-September) as of May 8, crushed 10,565.49 lakh quintals of cane and produced 120.01 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar.

Lockdown has led to demand destruction similar to demonetisation even for commodities such as potato and milk that were till recently in short supply

Lockdown makes no difference to demand, as nutrient sales posts sixth consecutive month of double-digit growth

The big opportunity the Indian industry has to undertake is manufacturing of active ingredients that are scheduled to lose patent protection in the next few years.

Paddy transplanting in the two states is done by over 10 lakh labourers, mostly seasonal migrants from Bihar and UP. There is uncertainty over their availability this time.

The wheat stocks of 24.7 mt were 3.3 times the necessary level of 7.46 mt for April 1, when the procurement season for the new crop also starts.

The share of money held in the form of currency, both by the public and as cash with banks, has hit the highest level since 2007-08.

Exports slowing down and not much domestic lifting of sugar by institutional consumers has significantly undermined the ability of mills to make cane payments.

Despite odds and amid crises, farmers deliver produce. Today, farmers need government

The Ways and Means Advances (WMA) window is intended only to tide over temporary mismatches in cash flow of receipts and payments.

Companies are racing against time to make available hybrids and high yielding varieties of paddy, maize, cotton and soyabean.

Farmers generally keep the crop harvested in March-April in these on-field raised platform structures (to prevent moisture ingress that cause the bulbs to sprout) and sell in tranches till September-October.

On Tuesday, 19 states sought to borrow an aggregate sum of Rs 37,500 crore through sale of bonds, with tenures ranging from two to 15 years, conducted on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) auction platform.

Simply put, the borrowing costs for states have gone up by almost one percentage point in less than a month’s time.

India’s imports of crude palm oil (CPO) and RBD (refined, bleached and de-odourised) palmolein stood at 3.35 lakh tonnes (lt) in March, a steep 58.2 per cent drop compared to 8.02 lt for the same month of 2019.