Blaming the media for creating a confusion on milk prices, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the Centre has no proposal to increase milk prices.
As per official data, retail price of sugar has gone up to Rs 47 a kg in New Delhi from Rs 22 a year-ago.
"That 0.2 per cent rise in food inflation is temporary... This (rise in food prices) is not the trend," Pawar said on the sidelines of an Indian Council of Agricultural Research Award ceremony in New Delhi.
The Sri Lankan navy on Tuesday arrested 25 Indian fishermen for allegedly poaching in the country's waters, officials said.
A decision on the legal right of the poor to get wheat or rice at Rs 3 per kg was deferred on Thursday as Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar could not attend the meeting of a panel of ministers on the Food Security Bill on health grounds.
Speaking at the 65th general council meeting of the National Cooperative Development Corporation, Pawar said the total availability of agricultural credit had doubled in the last three years.
Agriculture ministry to prepare blueprint for purchasing onions directly from farmers and the expenditure on damages would be shared equally between the Centre and state governments.
The retail prices of key pulses such as tur and urad have fallen by up to 22 per cent in metro cities over the last three months, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Friday.
The two-day seminar, starting Thursdayday, is being conducted to form strategy for the coming Rabi season in consultation with states to compensate against the losses in many crops due to drought during the Kharif season.
According to sources, the GoM has accepted the rural development ministry's demand to stick to the 70:30 formula for land acquisition for industry, after rejecting suggestions of a parliamentary panel, Left parties and some state governments. This means that a state can acquire only up to 30 per cent of the total land required for a project with the remaining being acquired by the private party concerned.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that the new sugar season will begin with much lower stocks, as the production will be hit by lower sugar recovery from cane after the failure of monsoon rains.
Suddenly for Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, sugar does not taste as sweet as it was.
With huge stocks and a possible record output this year, the Centre will soon take a decision whether to allow export of wheat, which was banned in early 2007, Food And Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said here on Thursday
The credit disbursement in 2009-10 fiscal was nearly Rs 3.84 lakh crore (Rs 3.84 trillion) against the target of Rs 3.25 lakh crore (Rs 3.25 trillion).
Stressing the role of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during drought, the chief minister said Bihar might require Rs 23,000 crore -- Rs 10,000 crore under GR, more than Rs 10,000 crore under NREGA and over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) for subsidy on diesel and other farm inputs.
These decisions were announced by food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues were briefed on the monsoon situation and Kharif sowing. Allaying fears of shortage of foodgrain, Pawar said, "Stock position is quite comfortable. We have sufficient stock position for 13 months in our kitty".
Food inflation touched 17.40 per cent for the week ended January 16 on account of high prices of vegetables and pulses.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday directed the Cabinet Secretary to look into a demand made by Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar that bureaucrats and intelligence officials should be held accountable for any lapse leading to terror attacks.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that the price of milk would increase, as there is a scarcity of milk in north India.
In 2008-09 season, the government's rice procurement was a record 336.84 LT. According to the latest official data, total rice purchases by the Food Corporation of India and state agencies stand at 178.30 LT as on Thursday, slightly below 182 LT procured in the same period of the 2008-09 season.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was on Friday admitted to Escorts Hospital in Delhi after he complained of restlessness and uneasiness.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced that the National Food Security Mission would be formally launched from Andhra Pradesh.
Party sources said apart from the Railway and General Budget, the government wanted to initiate some key legislation during the session to send a political message to voters. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has also planned to hold a meeting of the secretaries of different ministries to know each ministry's priority agenda. "We have to set the government's agenda accordingly," Bansal said.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said that it is necessary that farmers are given relevant information and guidance in simple language to generate better returns from farming activities.
The octogenarian leader said he agreed with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that these tactics to gain free publicity should be ignored. Without naming Raj, Thackeray said 'chicken in state politics are suffering from bird flu of depression', and hence they have no value.
The government on Wednesday said prices of the food articles might come down only after the ensuing Rabi season. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that due to the impact of the scant monsoon and the impact of floods, prices would not come down immediately.
"The first incident was reported to the local government on January 4. They communicated it to us on January 11," agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said.
Dabhol is part of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd.
The policy, among other things, aims to improve the economic viability of farming by substantially improving the net income of farmers in addition to improving productivity, profitability, land, water and support services and provide appropriate price policy, risk management measures.
Union Minister Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party may have to settle for lesser number of seats than it had in the 2004 assembly elections, said sources from the party. Leaders of the Congress and the NCP met on Wednesday in the second round of seat-sharing talks for the October 13 assembly elections.
Observing that the policy was primarily based on the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers headed by M S Swaminathan, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the draft policy suggested by the panel as well as suggestions received from various central ministries and state governments were taken into account while finalising it.
India's Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar says the government is taking a series of measures to liberalise futures trading in commodities.
As the number of districts witnessing drought has been revised sharply upwards from 207 just two days ago, the government said its main focus would now be on saving the standing crop and offsetting some losses in output during the coming Rabi season. The Centre has also asked states to lift more seeds for replanting the crops, if necessary, as it has about 15 lakh tonnes of surplus stock.
Close to half of the country is reeling under drought or drought-like situation with the number of districts affected rising to 246 as a poor monsoon has brought 29 per cent less rainfall, damaging standing crop.
The government on Monday said it has no plans to ban more farm commodities from futures market and hoped that suspension of trading in soya oil, chana, potato and rubber would not be extended beyond four months.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting on Wednesday on bailing out the textile industry following the surge in input costs due to a sharp hike in the minimum support price of cotton in September.
The central government is considering an expansion of the list of fertilisers that are eligible for subsidy.
The extent of the government's concern about inflation was evident at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices, which started at 8 pm on Monday and went on past 12 midnight. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath challenged Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to explain why wheat import this season had been delayed.
Drug banks, cancer fund now health ministry's babies.
The UPA government will fulfill the Congress promise of providing rice and wheat at cheap rates through ration shops in the wake of record procurement by the state agencies, Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar said on Monday after taking charge.
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