Parthasarathi Biswas

There has been a lot of speculation about India offering to open up its dairy and poultry market, including by extending duty concessions, to US imports. The picture on the ground so far, though, has been quite the opposite.

Pulses farmers are set to harvest a record chana crop, but their party could be spoiled by imports.

Anup Kumar, Principal Secretary of Animal Husbandry, Marketing and Dairy Development Department said the animal husbandry commissioner has been instructed to take necessary steps in the matter following instructions from Cabinet Minister Sunil Kedar.

The main aim of the committee is to advise the government on various dynamics of the sector and trade. The GR talks about how this committee will take stock of the situation and advise steps, which will help both farmers and consumers.

After two years of surplus sugar production, the world sugar market has entered a period of deficit, with the International Sugar Organisation (ISO) talking about about a 55-lt dip for the 2019-20 (November-October) crushing season.

Cindy Brown, Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) president while talking to The Indian Express, said India's shift from being the biggest importer of pulses has affected the global markets also.

The Sugarcane Control Order of 1966 mandates that mills pay the basic FRP within 14 days of purchase, failing which mills are to pay 15% per year interest.

Ginners from Khandesh — comprising Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts — are hopeful to export directly to Bangladesh. In this regard, a special team will be leaving for Bangladesh towards the end of February.

Since the spread of the Coronavirus, posts on social media, especially WhatsApp forwards, have linked the virus with consumption of broiler chicken. While the first spread of the virus is speculated to be zoonotic in nature — spreading from animals to humans — the subsequent spread has been mostly human to human.

Banks have lent just over Rs 1,700 crore against NWRs in eight years and, that too, mostly to traders

In her Budget speech, the Finance Minister also mentioned about the government’s plan to eliminate Foot and Mouth Disease, brucellosis in cattle, and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in sheep and goat by 2025.

Last September, the vineyards of Nashik encountered heavy destruction, as unseasonal rain lashed the area. Estimates have shown that of the 1.4 lakh hectares of grapes in the region, around 5,000 hectares were affected.

At Latur’s wholesale market, which is the largest oilseed and pulses market in the country, the average traded price of soyabean corrected by over Rs 200 per quintal in the last seven days.

As with the elections of local self-government bodies, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government lost no time in undoing the changes in the election process effected by the previous government. The first of the change was suspension of the over 600 expert directors appointed in the 302 agricultural produce marketing committees (APMCs).

A simple low-cost intervention — moisture testing machine — has enabled cotton growers of this Telangana district to realise better prices.

After his expulsion from the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, led by former MP and farmers’ leader Raju Shetti, Khot had floated an apolitical organisation by the name of Rayat Kranti Sanghtana.

Between September and December, when retail onion prices soared from around Rs 30 to Rs 100-plus per kg (they have since fallen to Rs 50 or so), Paswan has similarly urged state governments through Twitter to “act” against alleged hoarders of the bulb.

Urban consumers will have to pay more for green vegetables due to the sudden rise in wholesale and retail prices.

Meanwhile, Dilip Mohite Patil, NCP MLA from Khed constituency in Pune and the chairman of Maharashtra State Federation of Market Committees, has demanded scrapping of the present method of electing directors and chairmen of these wholesale markets and reverting to the old method of indirect elections.