-The Financial Express While the Central Statistical Organisation has estimated “agriculture and allied services” to grow 4.1% in FY17, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand expects the growth rate to be a handsome 7%. Chand spoke to FE’s Prasanta Sahu and Sandip Das on critical factors that need to be addressed to ensure at least 4% annual growth over the next 15 years. * How do you foresee the direction of the agricultural...

-The Hindu Nabard report says high dependency on well irrigation coupled with low rainfall is acting as a constraint for achieving high farm growth Hyderabad: Agriculture growth in the last five years has been negative though it has been compensated by contribution from allied agricultural activities in Telangana, said the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in a report presented at the credit plan seminar on Friday. Expressing the bank’s perspective...

-Business Standard This is the time when farm labour is engaged in the fields which result in a dip in demand for work under MNREGA New Delhi: November is considered the best month for sowing of rabi crops as the winter starts setting in and the residual moisture in soil is still available, lowering farmers reliance on ground water. This is also the time, when farm labour is engaged in the fields and...

-Frontline.in Interview with Utsa Patnaik, professor emerita of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. By T.K. RAJALAKSHMI THE FALLOUT of the decision of the National Democratic Alliance government to demonetise currency of higher denominations has been felt across all sections of people. There are concerns that it will lead to an overall economic slowdown given the acute shortage of currency for industrial and agricultural operations. The impact on agriculture and those dependent on agriculture...

-Livemint.com The transformation of the Indian countryside has been slow and messy One of the celebrated success stories of India’s growth experience over the past decade was the rapid transformation of the countryside, with a massive shift in the rural labour market away from farm jobs. Two labour economists have now challenged the empirical foundations of that success story, raising deep questions on the nature and scale of that transformation. Their research also...