-Down to Earth It provides farmers with services to improve productivity and find better prices A non-profit based in Telangana, working on agricultural research and development, has launched a low-cost phone cum tablet computer-phablet-to benefit small holder farmers. "GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder farmers, helping them to purchase inputs at a lower price and get a better price for their produce. It will also link them to...

-The Indian Express The Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households, released last week by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), is the second one ever to be done. The SAS of 2003 was necessitated by the agrarian crisis of the time. Farmer suicides had reached a peak, and the reference year for the survey, 2002-2003, had seen severe drought. The agricultural sector was in crisis, with growth rates slowing to...

-The Hindu Business Line Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have reneged on loan waiver promises. When Messrs Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao, chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively, promised to waive Farm loans, there was no reason to distrust them. The Election Commission clearly directed the politicians not to make any promises that could not be implemented. They thought all the Farm loans would be written off once they formed...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau has termed loan waiver and relief packages for distressed farmers as "short-term" measures and said the issue of farmer suicides needs a comprehensive solution. In a report to the Prime Minister's Office last week, the IB said farmer suicide is on a rise in Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab. It also pointed to suicides by debt-ridden farmers in Gujarat, UP and Tamil Nadu...

-Business Standard Surveys show 40% still get loans from non-institutional sources & at high rates A little over half of India's agricultural households were in debt, with 40 per cent of the dues from non-institutional lenders, during agricultural year 2012-13 (July to June), according to a official survey. This 'Situation assessment survey of agricultural households' showed 51.9 per cent of all agricultural households were indebted, with the average amount of unpaid dues being...