-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...

-Livemint.com A growth-first approach may work in the short-term, but India needs to prioritize sustainability simultaneously The Union Budget 2016-17, seeking to “transform India”, has been hailed for its emphasis on agricultural growth and sustainability. Symbolically, the finance minister put “agriculture and farmers’ welfare” first in his nine-point agenda. The words “agriculture” and “farmer” found 20 and 32 mentions, respectively, in the budget speech, the highest in the last decade. On the...

-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...

-Deccan Herald Learning from the Sikkim experience, the Modi government on Monday announced bringing 5 lakh acres of rainfed land under organic farming over the next three years. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the allocation of Rs 412 crore for two schemes – Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region – that seek to promote organic farming. “The ‘Parmparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana’ will bring 5 lakh acres...

-Hindustan Times Chandigarh: The Union budgetary proposal of converting 5 lakh hectares in the country under organic farming means little to the agrarian state of Punjab that is engulfed in a long-standing debate—the country’s food security vs organic farming. Punjab State Farmers’ Commission and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) are sceptical about the state going the organic way on a large scale, explaining agro-economic realities, notwithstanding the state government’s cosmetic exercises and verbal...