-Countercurrents.org More than half of rural households in India are landless, or almost so. This deprives them of the most obvious asset needed for sustainable livelihoods and food security in villages–farmland. After agriculture the next most important source of rural livelihood in India is dairy farming but here too the household with farmland has free access to crop residues which is increasingly not available to landless households who have to incur extra...
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The role of MGNREGS in the climate crisis -Rita Sharma
-Hindustan Times Studies that measure the contribution of MGNREGS towards improving the adaptive capacity of the beneficiary households have remained few and far between. While the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been a valuable employment tool and safety net, as seen in the migrant crisis, its role in building ecosystems resilient to the climate crisis is being increasingly recognised. There is now an urgent need to bring upfront...
More »Millets pose production and consumption challenges; MP’s Dindori project shows the way forward -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express In rural India, the National Food Security Act of 2013 – which entitles three-fourths of all households to 5 kg of wheat or rice per person per month at Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg, respectively – has reduced the demand for millets. Millets score over rice and wheat, whether in terms of vitamins, minerals and crude fibre content or amino acid profile. They are also hardier and...
More »What India’s farm crisis really needs -Christophe Jaffrelot and Hemal Thakker
-The Indian Express To solve India’s deep agrarian crisis, more public investment and government support are needed, not the new farm laws The farmers’ movement invites us to revisit the trajectory of India’s agriculture so as to understand its real problems. Beginning in the mid-1960s, India and, especially, Punjab experienced a massive productivity boom as a result of widespread adoption of Green Revolution technologies. This transition was driven by public investment in...
More »Farmer leaders, civil rights activists campaign against BJP -Shiv Sahay Singh
-The Hindu Ask BJP leaders to withdraw the three farm Bills, say Rakesh Tikait and Medha Patkar. Secular and pro-farmer votes in West Bengal should not get split, leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha and civil rights activists who have been campaigning in the State for the past three days, said on Sunday. Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and social activist Medha Patkar campaigned in Nandigram, Singur and Kolkata...
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