Agriculture
Wheat procurement touches new high
WHEAT procurement by Government agencies has touched a new high of 17.78 million tonnes (mt), taking aggregate foodgrain stocks with the Central pool well above the 60-mt mark.
India must insist on palm oil price tie-up
THE $1.8-billion railway project bagged by Indian Railway Construction Company (Ircon) will be paid for by Malaysia in the form of palm oil over a five-year period. Has India got a really good deal? Opinions differ.
AP to supply 9.19 lakh qtl kharif seeds
THE Andhra Pradesh Government has planned to distribute 9.19 lakh quintals (qtl) of seed during kharif, this year. The seed includes 6,320 qtl of paddy, 889 qtl of groundnut, 373 qtl of redgram, 105.5 qtl of greengram, 116 qtl of blackgram and 90 qtl of
castor. The crop and variety wise seed supply plan was prepared and communicated to the district officials.
Edible oil imports up
VEGETABLE oil imports recovered in April to 3.99 lakh tonnes (from 2.85 lakh tonnes in March), with the import basket dominated by refined palmolein (1.88 lakh tonnes), followed by crude palm oil (1.05 lakh tonnes).
More grain exports to Iraq likely
NEW DELHI: Iraq has given clearance to the visit of a high-level Indian delegation to Baghdad on Thursday for exploring possibilities of further exports of foodgrains to the country even as it has rejected wheat consignments from Canada and Argentina.
Record soya output forecast in US
SOYABEAN output in the US is likely to set yet another record in 2001-02 and is currently forecast at 81.2 million tonnes (mt), up from 75.4 mt of the current year, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Area expansion (over one million he
ctares) and higher yields (2.5 tonnes per hectare) are expected contribute to the large increase.
Plantations
Pepper prices drop on poor offtake
SPOT pepper prices fell by Rs 100 a quintal at the beginning of this week on lack of of buying support. Garbled MG 1 was sold at Rs 10,400 a quintal as against Rs 10,500 on May 12, while ungarbled was available at Rs 9,900 as against Rs 10,000 a quintal.
Bankers' meet assures aid to coffee growers
COMMERCIAL banks, cooperative banks and regional rural banks will implement relief measures for the coffee industry to overcome the current problems, according to bankers.
Rubber
Quake-resistant bearings from Rubber Board soon
THE Rubber Board has formulated a comprehensive plan to develop indigenous technology for the manufacture of earthquake resistance bearings. Research for this is being done in collaboration with the Structural Engineering Research Centre, a Central Gover
nment organisation based here, a board press release said.
