-The Hindu Business Line The Budget’s agriculture focus is welcome, but it could have done better A Budget with a purported focus on agriculture could not have come at a better time. There has been a sharp dip in agriculture output from a trend rate of growth of 4 per cent per annum in the period 2004-05 to 2011-12 to about 1.5 per cent in the next four years, which includes a...

-The Hindu Winner of the State Award in Agriculture, 32 years old P. Prasanna is a role model for women aspiring to become farmers From an unknown entity, P. Prasanna has now become a household name in the tiny Tiruppalai Village after she rose to fame bagging Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Special Award this year for her achievement in agriculture. She recorded high Yield of paddy through ‘semmai nel sagupadi’ (System of...

-The Indian Express Never before has India’s agricultural science community been as demoralised as now Everyone knows Indian agriculture is in deep crisis, impacting around 115 million farmers and an equal number of landless cultivators. Two consecutive bad monsoons and falling commodity prices have resulted in the imports of edible oils and pulses touching all-time-highs, even as its exports of agri-products — from basmati rice, soya meal, sugar, milk powder and...

-The Indian Express Central allocations for agriculture are less important than the state budgets. I took the night train to Delhi to participate in budget-day discussions and my co-passenger, who boarded the train in ravaged Punjab, asked me a simple question: “50 farmers are committing suicide everyday; will the budget end farmer suicides?” My answer was — and still is — “No.” The Union budget is just the government’s bookkeeping exercise...

-Economic Times PUNE: As the 2016-17 union budget revealed its emphasis on organic farming by allocating Rs 412 crore for organic farming and announcing to bring 5 lakh acre under organic farming in next 3 years, farmers want concrete measures to implement it successfully. "Considering that the Yield per acre is very low in organic farming, we want the government to give minimum support price for organic produce," said Jayapal Reddy, secretary,...