-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...
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Punjab opens its heart - and purse - to farmers -Sanjeeb Mukherjee & Archis Mohan
-Business Standard Instead of addressing systemic problems in agriculture, farm politics in the state is about how much money the government can offer the farmer as a dole The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), led by Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir, was in a dilemma a year before the 2012 Assembly elections in Punjab. The Akalis had ruled Punjab since 2007 but no party had ever returned to power for a second...
More »Crop insurance: new dawn for farmers? -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line The new scheme offers lower premium, more risk cover and hassle-free settlement Crop insurance schemes have not been a hit with Indian farmers in the past. High premia, limited coverage, complicated ways of assessing losses and delayed payment of compensation have kept farmers away from them. Given the high risk of crop damage in India, with significant loss in food grain production in 18 of the last 54 years...
More »Brinkmanship over a limited dispute -Yogendra Yadav
-The Hindu The Centre should step forward and bring both Punjab and Haryana, ruled by the BJP and an ally, to the negotiating table to resolve the crisis over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal Contemporary India illustrates the tragic paradox of farmers’ politics: they get divided just when they need to unite the most. The last few years have witnessed a deepening of the agrarian crisis in India. This is the moment when...
More »New crop insurance scheme will cover 50% of farmers: Jaitley -Deepa Nair
-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: The newly-launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) will bring about 50 per cent of India’s farmers in the crop insurance net and help reduce the prevailing distress in the agriculture sector, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PMFBY is distinct from all earlier schemes in the sense that it not only takes the number of insured farmers to a higher level (from 20 per cent earlier...
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