-The Hindu Business Line Non-loanee farmers availing insurance may be far fewer than data claim Last January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new crop insurance scheme with the aim of bringing 50 per cent of the country’s farmers under insurance cover in three years. Data shows that in kharif 2016 — the first season after the scheme’s launch — crop insurance coverage had risen. However, despite the Centre’s claims, this growth is...

-Bangalore Mirror ICAR researchers say subsidised electricity benefitting only medium and large farmers Stating that the policy decision to provide free or subsidised electricity has been a key driver for widespread groundwater exploitation, estimates by ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Ballari, reveal that in Karnataka, groundwater depletion has forced farmers to drill up to depths of 200 to 300 metres, costing about Rs 2.5-3 lakh for a successful...

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...

-The Indian Express It’s for the first time that the NCRB has categorised farmers’ suicides due to debt or bankruptcy based on the source of Loans. Local moneylenders are usually portrayed as the villains in India’s farmer-suicides narrative, but government data shows that 80 per cent of farmers killed themselves in 2015 because of bankruptcy or debts after taking Loans from banks and registered microfinance institutions. According to National Crime Records Bureau’s latest...

-The Financial Express New Delhi: Despite India being the world’s largest milk producer for the past many years, a majority of small dairy farmers in the country continue to remain outside the formal credit system of commercial banks and financial institutions, a joint study the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has stated. The study ‘Formal versus Informal: Efficiency, inclusiveness, and...