New Delhi As part of its plan to create two-million-tonne-capacity silos for storing grain across the country, the government has approved creation of silos in 10 states with the capacities ranging from 4 lakh tonne to 50,000 tonne.

The state-level committees on silos are identifying suitable locations, which would be built via the private-public-partnership mode. Food minister KV Thomas said that while 4-lakh-tonne-capacity silos would be built in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh would get silos with a capacity 3.5 lakh tonne. Haryana and UP would get silos with 3-lakh-tonne capacity each.

Ministry proposes four options to the EGoM to expedite shipment of sweetener.

Barely 24 hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to reconvene a meeting to discuss policies on export of farm products and storage of grains, the government has conceded another major demand of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar by allowing export of caesin, a value-added milk product.

“Export of casein and casein products has been moved from the ‘prohibited’ to ‘restricted’ category. Export of casein is now permitted under licence,” an official statement issued tonight said. The government had banned exports of casein and milk powder in February last year, following a fall in the domestic supply of milk.

New Delhi The government is set to lift a ban on fresh cotton export registration, although efforts to resolve the controversial issue amicably by putting a cap on further shipments eluded a consensus on Sunday, a day before the meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss farm exports.

While agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is pitching for the complete removal of ban on fresh export registration in the year through September, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and commerce and textile minister Anand Sharma are in favour of allowing fresh licences up to two million bales to balance the interest of farmers with textile mills, sources said.

New Delhi India’s grain output is estimated to exceed the previous forecast to hit a fresh peak of 252.56 million tonne this crop year through June on higher-than-expected output of rice and wheat, although coarse cereal and pulse production will trail last year’s level.

The record harvest will keep key grain supplies steady and provide the much-needed comfort to the government as it gears up to implement a food security law, but it will also bring to the fore problems of storage. Moreover, a downward revision in the production of pulses, coarse cereal and oilseeds may weigh on prices.

New Delhi Notwithstanding apprehensions expressed by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on the proposal of giving grain as part payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, food minister KV Thomas on Sunday continued to support the idea. Thomas said, “There is enough surplus grain to be given to poor families.”

In a recent letter to the Jairam Ramesh, Thomas had made the proposal, which he said would also help ease the problems of excess foodgrain stocks for the government.

New Delhi In a bid to reduce pilferage of grain, food ministry and UN body World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for scaling up the modernisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

WFP, which is currently supporting a pilot project in Orissa’s Rayagada districts, where biometrics based technology is used to eliminate ‘bogus’ BPL card holders, would support other states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and North-eastern states in taking up modernisation of TPDS.

In a major step forward to augment capacity for storing foodgrains for the public distribution system, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has notified 10 sites in as many States for construction o

It is back to the 1970s as far as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is concerned. The job guarantee scheme is set to provide food grain as part of wages. The rural development ministry, which found its NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) allocations squeezed in the Budget, has approached the food ministry with a proposal to provide food for work under the scheme.

The scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work on demand to any rural citizen, had a budget of about Rs 40,000 crore till last year. It found its allocation almost halved in this year’s Budget.

The alarming financial health of the State was revealed in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the Assembly on Friday which said that in five years, the State’s fiscal liabil