With the Rabi season entering its last phase, the Centre on Thursday decided to extend the validity of power it had granted to state governments under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 for six more months to enable them to take action against hoarding of wheat and pulses by private traders. At the end of the season, the Government will begin its wheat procurement operations. The decision, taken during a meeting of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, comes under the backdrop of firming up of domestic prices of pulses and higher global prices of wheat, which the Government has found difficult to import. Following the recent fuel price hike, the decision also aims to keep tab on inflationary pressure by controlling hoarding of wheat and pulses by the private traders. Under the Act, the state governments can register cases against persons engaged in hoarding of agricultural commodities under which the offenders can be imprisoned for a period of up to six months. The Centre had first issued the notification to this effect on August 29, 2006 for a period of six months, which it had continued extending under the worries of inflation that had even crossed the 6-per cent mark last year. The Cabinet also gave approval to a bilateral agreement between India and the Russian Federation on cooperation to combat illicit trafficking in narcotics, psychotropic substance and their precursors. In another decision, the Cabinet approved an agreement between India and Luxemburg that will help both countries in avoiding double taxation and fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital.

Investors can't afford to ignore food. As a hedge against a possible US recession, and direct exposure to rising urbanisation and wealth in Asia, it's an asset class that's tailor-made for the present times. As Jim Rogers of New York-based investment firm Rogers Holdings puts it, "If you're in agriculture, you don't know that there is a recession, you don't care.'' That may be as true for investors in agricultural commodities as it is for farmers, provided the former don't rely on the expertise of fund managers to beat the futures markets.

Lahu Fale does not have to think twice about market availability, price and transportation when it comes to deciding which crops to grow. Now he and other farmers in Pune's Kolwan Valley can sell

Conditions are ripe for an upturn in India's dairy sector. The government has lifted its ban on the export of milk powder at a time when increasing demand is sending prices of dairy products

Sugarcane growers in Uttar Pradesh feel sold out to mills Frustration is growing among sugarcane growers in Uttar Pradesh. First private sugar mills refused to begin crushing and now the Lucknow

the Union government increased the minimum support price of wheat, paddy, sugarcane, mustard, rapeseed and other agricultural commodities on October 9. The announcement was made after the Cabinet

Pasta-loving Italians observed a one-day

"Why shouldn't salt-making be classed as agriculture?' asks R Potharaju. "Both require land, water and sunshine, and are subject to vagaries of nature,' he reasons. Potharaju is convenor of 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