Food security and organic farming can go hand in hand. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today gave a green signal to efforts under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture to promote green manuring and organic farming while talking about bringing in the Food Securtiy Act this year, settling the debate on high pesticide and chemical fertiliser use in Punjab and Haryana. He said his government is mulling to also bring urea,...
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“Encourage organised retail for agri-produce” by Neena Vyas
Ban futures trading in essential commodities, says Modi report As chairman of the working group on consumer affairs, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has recommended that futures trading in essential commodities be banned and that organised retail in agri-produce be encouraged to make a dent in food inflation. The working group, comprising the Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, was set up in April last. Mr. Modi...
More »Funds for social schemes seem to be vanishing
In his general budget for 2011-12, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has announced an increase in allocation for the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of Rs10,000 crore to Rs58,000 crore.The finance minister has proposed an identical hike for the Bharat Nirman scheme, and also proposed to give Rs3000 core to the national agricultural development board, NABARD.Mukherjee also said the government has decided to index the wage rates notified...
More »NREGA Budget Disappoints on the Downside by Tom Wright
One of the big surprises in the 2011-2012 budget was that spending on the country’s landmark rural employment program remained flat, disappointing activists who see it as a way of redressing growing wealth disparities. The program has since 2006 guaranteed 100 days of work a year for unskilled laborers to build rural infrastructure like irrigation ditches and roads. The Congress party has made the program, known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...
More »Union Budget 2011 to bring in food bill for poor
India's finance minister announced on Monday a food security bill for 2011/12, a measure that would provide cheap grains for millions of India's poor but which has sparked worries of a huge fiscal cost. It was one of the first signs of populism in the annual budget as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confronted high prices and corruption scandals as well as elections in five states this year. In his ongoing budget speech,...
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