-Outlook Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today hinted at more sops for the troubled farmers, saying the unseasonal rains in March have resulted in an "agrarian crisis". Jaitley asserted that the government is committed to allocate more resources to the farm sector, which he identified as the biggest challenge for high growth. "Agriculture is the biggest challenge and the unseasonal rains have resulted in an agrarian crisis," Jaitley said here this evening at...
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Rural stress affects farmers even in prosperous states -Mayank Mishra
-Business Standard Greater adoption of cash crops combined with a collapse in the prices of agri-commodities has led farmers to the brink in major agricultural areas According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, nearly 64 per cent of all farmer suicides in the country in 2013 took place in the four states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, raising the question: why is rural stress resulting in farmer suicides...
More »More power to skilled hands -Laila Tyabji
-The Hindu Handlooms are the one area where India leads the world in skill, creativity and expertise. The Handloom Reservation Act must be strengthened, not repealed Last month, Gajendra Singh, a farmer, hanged himself in New Delhi. His death attracted massive attention as it happened so publicly, in front of the hundreds of people gathered there for Aam Aadmi Party’s rally against the Land Acquisition Bill. Such attention is rare, given that...
More »Ending India’s Agrarian Nightmare -Rupa Subramanya
-ForeignPolicy.com Roughly 600 million Indians are farmers -- the majority of whom would happily give it up for another job. So why is the Congress party so determined to keep them as peasants? In 1991, the Congress-led government of Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao passed a series of groundbreaking reforms that unshackled the economy from its tight state controls, transforming it into a market-oriented, globalized giant. Those reforms unleashed India’s...
More »Deepening agrarian crisis endangers food security
A recent press release from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the area affected by recent rains and hailstorms is estimated to be 189.81 lakh hectares (on 24 April 2015), which is nearly double the total area affected that was earlier estimated on 16 April 2015. (See the link below). Experts argue that such extreme weather events may severely damage food economy of the nation, apart from breaking the spirit...
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