New Delhi | Reuters — India’s opposition parties boycotted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest attempt to build consensus around a business-friendly land bill Wednesday, boding badly for his ambitious agenda of economic reform in a parliament session that starts next week. Almost half of India’s 31 chief ministers spurned Modi’s invitation to meet him in […] Read more
India’s Modi battles opposition to key land reform
Canada to check India’s feed corn for aflatoxin
All feed corn coming to Canada from India is now going to be held and tested for aflatoxin, as high levels of the toxins have recently turned up in organic corn from the country. Importers of corn — organic or otherwise — from India, starting immediately, first must sample the corn, upon arrival in Canada […] Read more
Hit by beef ban, Indian butchers eye Jersey cows
Mumbai | Reuters –– Battling a beef ban that has threatened their livelihoods, Muslim traders in India are seeking permission to slaughter foreign-origin Jersey cows they think will not be as sacred to the country’s majority Hindus as locally bred cattle. Several states led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra […] Read more
India’s PM boosts compensation for farmers to ease rural discontent
New Delhi | Reuters –– Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced higher compensation and government aid for farmers who are suffering due to unseasonable rains, in an attempt to calm growing discontent among people living in the countryside. Storms have badly damaged crops in large parts of northern India and led to anger […] Read more
Red varieties driving lentil acreage increase
CNS Canada — As Canada’s remaining old-crop lentils shuffle off to buyers overseas, interest is building in the potential for new crop in 2015. Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodity Research in Winnipeg said he expects more acres will be planted this spring as a result of the strong interest. “Oh, there’ll definitely be more; the […] Read more
Double-cropping project aims to cut Indian lentil imports
Researchers on a project in India and Bangladesh say they hope it will greatly reduce their lentil imports. Farmers in the project are growing lentils in fields left fallow after rice harvests, with the help of a research and training project by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). In a […] Read more
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 […] Read more
India reportedly considering import tax on pulses
New Delhi | Reuters — India, the world’s biggest importer of pulses, is considering a 10 per cent tax on overseas purchases of pulses to support local farmers, a government official said Tuesday. The government is also considering to lift a ban on exports of pulses and edible oils, the official, who declined to be […] Read more
India orders culling after new bird flu outbreaks
Paris | Reuters –– India has found two outbreaks of a highly contagious bird flu virus in the southern state of Kerala, prompting the authorities to cull more than 200,000 birds, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday. The virus itself killed about 15,000 infected ducks in Kottayam and another 500 in […] Read more
WTO sees global trade pact within two weeks
Brisbane | Reuters –– The World Trade Organization said Friday there was a “high probability” that a major deal on streamlining global customs rules will be implemented within two weeks after India and the U.S. overcame a key impasse. “I would say that we have a high probability that the Bali package will be implemented […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
