-Business Standard Instead of addressing systemic problems in agriculture, farm politics in the state is about how much money the government can offer the farmer as a dole The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), led by Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir, was in a dilemma a year before the 2012 Assembly elections in Punjab. The Akalis had ruled Punjab since 2007 but no party had ever returned to power for a second...
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Farmers to step up fight for Income Guarantee Act
-TheHansIndia.com Social activist Medha Patkar comes down heavily on AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for ‘grabbing fertile lands’ from farmers for high-rise buildings She also criticises Telangana State government for its ‘anti-farmer policies’ Hyderabad: The third Kisan Swaraj Sammelan has called upon farmers to put up a unified fight in support of their demand for providing them with a comprehensive Farmers' Income Guarantee Act. They were of the unanimous opinion that such...
More »Crop insurance: new dawn for farmers? -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line The new scheme offers lower premium, more risk cover and hassle-free settlement Crop insurance schemes have not been a hit with Indian farmers in the past. High premia, limited coverage, complicated ways of assessing losses and delayed payment of compensation have kept farmers away from them. Given the high risk of crop damage in India, with significant loss in food grain production in 18 of the last 54 years...
More »Limited outreach of subsidised crop loan scheme among small & marginal farmers
The budgetary support to interest subvention scheme has increased by almost 14 times between 2006-07 and 2016-17. However, the much-touted subsidised short-term credit scheme provides little help to the small and marginal farmers, apart from tenant farmers. According to the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion, which submitted its report in December 2015, the interest subvention scheme suffers from 3 types of defects: i. Subsidised credit may not be...
More »Is agriculture a business? -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Yes, except that farmers suffer rules other businessmen never encounter Agriculture is said to be India’s largest private-sector enterprise, engaging nearly 119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. It is even considered the most respectable business, going by the oft-quoted slogan “uttam kheti, madhyam vyapar, kanishtha naukri (supreme is farming, mediocre is trade and most lowly is service)”. But the exalted...
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