A farmer works in his sugar cane field on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India February 28, 2015.

Sweet paradox: India’s drought-stricken farmers plant thirstiest crop

Erratic prices for vegetables, oilseeds and pulses limit the incentive for farmers to plant them

Despite pleas from the government not to, Indian farmers like Santosh Wagh went right back to planting sugar cane as soon as the first nourishing monsoon rains brought water to his drought-stricken region of central India. For growers like Wagh, a 35-year-old from the Marathwada region in the west of India’s Maharashtra state, sugar cane

Scorching heat delays India’s rapeseed sowing

Mumbai / Reuters – Above-normal temperatures have delayed rapeseed sowing in India’s top producing region by more than a fortnight and restricted acreage expansion, even though prices are trading near record highs, industry officials said. The delays are helping support rapeseed prices and could force the world’s biggest edible oil importer to increase overseas purchases of



India onion prices fuel food inflation

Onion prices in India hit a two-and-a-half-year high on Wednesday riding a supply squeeze due to last year’s drought in key growing areas, and traders expect prices to spiral up further in a month as demand remains strong due to Ramadan. Onion is a common ingredient in many Indian dishes. Soaring prices of the vegetable