the Uttar Pradesh agriculture policy, which was announced on August 3, was scrapped three weeks later. The policy was aimed at giving impetus to retail and contract farming in the state. But the

Two supermarket giants

the ban on futures trading in essential commodities is likely to be lifted. The expert committee under Abhijit Sen backs the idea. The committee was set up in March 2007 to assess the impact of

National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited's Institute of Commodity Market and Research has submitted its report to Abhijit Sen Committee on measures that need to be taken to ensure farmers' security in futures trading. The report agrees with the need for futures trading, but differs on when and how it should be introduced. The recommendations are:

lakkhan Raghuwanshi had a bad harvest last monsoon. The farmer from Shyampur village, Guna district, cultivated soyabean, wheat and chana in 121 hectare (ha), of which he sowed soyabean in 61 ha.

the Punjab state farmers commission has recently asked the state government to make delayed-sowing of rice mandatory. The move comes at a time when agriculture in Punjab is facing its worst spell

it's official. The Reliance special economic zone (sez) project in Haryana is on. On June 5, the Board of Approval of sezs, a government body, gave its nod to the sez, which is to come up in 565

At least three major cities saw protests in May against Reliance, India's largest corporation, entering the business of retailing fresh vegetables and fruits through its brand Reliance Fresh. In