-The Indian Express At current rates of depletion, Punjab’s entire subsurface water resource could be exhausted in a little over two decades. Jalandhar: As the discussion around Punjab’s massive groundwater crisis becomes more urgent, there is an increasingly stronger accent on diversification of crops, and a move away from water-guzzling paddy. At a meeting over the weekend, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, decided to strengthen Maize — the most important alternative to...
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An unequal burden -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Farmers are paying about Rs 15,000 crore GST annually, on which they cannot claim input tax credit. Agriculture is a unique business that not only has high production as well as price risk, but also one where everything is bought retail and sold wholesale. This reality, moreover, extends even to Goods and Services Tax (GST): Farmers are the only businessmen today who cannot claim input tax credit (ITC) on...
More »Solution to economy's woes: Boost incomes of those who will spend it best -Harish Damodaran
-Financial Express Two measures can do much to bring back price sentiment and liquidity in agricultural markets, just when farmers are set to harvest a bumper crop. The current economic slowdown began with Bharat. It has to also end with Bharat. According to the National Statistical Office’s GDP estimates for April-June 2019 released on Friday, India’s agriculture sector — which includes forestry and fishing — grew 2.04% year-on-year during the quarter....
More »How selling cereals is actually exporting water -KV Kurmanath
-The Hindu Business Line Shift of focus to Maize, sorghum, millets would help: Research Hyderabad: Excessive focus on cereal production and the resulting pressure on groundwater in some States is no news. But this, a UK-based researcher contends, means that some States are actually ‘exporting’ their scarce groundwater when they market the cereals. A study by a group of researchers from academic and research institutes from the UK, Germany and India has suggested...
More »First challenge for next govt: Food inflation set to return -Parthasarathi Biswas & Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The past couple of months have seen prices of a host of farm commodities surge, mainly on the back of drought in large parts of western and southern India, coupled with an early and harsher-than-usual summer. New Delhi, Pune: THE BJP-LED NDA government’s tenure has been marked by benign food prices. Consumer food inflation has ruled below general retail inflation for 31 months running, from September 2016 to...
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