New Delhi | Reuters — Unseasonal torrential rains and hailstorms have damaged the winter-planted crops of millions of Indian growers, inundating wheat, potato, chickpea and rapeseed farms in large parts of the fertile northern plains, farmers said. Most farmers were caught by surprise by the repeated rain and hail that has lashed fields full of
Unseasonal rain, hail damage winter crops in India
Crop quality issues may pressure prices
Indian court acquits six in cow vigilante case
New Delhi | Reuters — An Indian court on Wednesday acquitted six men of the killing of a 55-year-old Muslim dairy farmer, citing lack of evidence, raising questions over the prosecution’s failure to make its case despite videos of a crowd beating him in the street. The 2017 attack on Pehlu Khan and his two
India’s top court suspends ban on trade in cattle for slaughter
New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Supreme Court suspended on Tuesday a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, a boost for the multi-billion dollar beef and leather industries mostly run by members of the Muslim minority. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in May decreed that markets could only trade cattle
India cattle trade ban to halt beef exports
New Delhi | Reuters — India’s ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter threatens US$4 billion in annual beef exports and millions of jobs if the government does not revoke the stoppage decreed last week, according to two industry officials. In the latest setback to the Muslim-dominated meat industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government
India considering reinstating wheat import tax
New Delhi | Reuters –– India could impose a 25 per cent import tax on wheat by the middle of March, two government sources said on Wednesday, reinstating the tariff after a gap of nearly three months in response to recent large purchases from overseas. India, the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, lowered the import tax
India might extend wheat import tax beyond March
New Delhi | Reuters — India is likely to extend a wheat import tax beyond March to shield its domestic farmers from cheap imports, particularly as wheat from the new-season harvest will become available by the end of this month, government sources said Monday. After consulting the food, farm and trade ministries, the finance ministry
Monsanto threatens to exit India over GM royalty row
New Delhi | Reuters –– Monsanto, the world’s biggest seed company, threatened to pull out of India on Friday if the government imposed a big cut in royalties that local firms pay for its genetically modified cotton seeds. Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India), a joint venture with India’s Mahyco, licenses a gene that produces its own
India not to cut multi-billion dollar food handout program
New Delhi | Reuters –– India will not scale down its multi-billion dollar food welfare program that promises ultra-cheap rice and wheat to most of its people despite a high-level recommendation, a top government source said on Wednesday. A panel set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month urged the government to lower the
India boosts wheat subsidies to farmers
Wheat stocks already in government warehouses are nearly three times the official target
The Indian government has raised the price it will pay to buy new-season wheat from local farmers by 3.57 per cent to 1,450 rupees ($23.60) per 100 kg, encouraging the crop even though supply has exceeded demand for eight years. India, the world’s second-biggest wheat consumer, sets a price each year to protect domestic farmers
India on track to produce surplus wheat for the sixth year in a row
India, which is also the world’s biggest consumer of grain after China, produced a record 93.9 million tonnes in 2012
India looks likely to harvest a bumper crop of wheat in 2013, its sixth in a row to exceed demand, after late monsoon rains replenished soil moisture, strengthening prospects for exports from the world’s second-biggest producer for a second year. Annual monsoon rains picked up after a slow start in June, prompting Farm Minister SharadCyber-Savvy Farmer
