-The Indian Express Farmers can install solar panels on their fields that can generate income in addition to regular crop agriculture. Of its several new initiatives, the Narendra Modi government has set out at least two very ambitious targets, which are also quantifiable. One is achieving 100 giga-watts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by the year 2022. The other is doubling farmers’ income — presumably in real terms — also by 2022,...

-PTI New Delhi: The Centre is working to provide agriculture loans to farmers in a timely manner, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today. NABARD is creating groups of farmers and agriculture producers to provide them cheap loans from banks and till March-end, 2,424 producer groups were set up, he said. “The central government is working expeditiously to provide agriculture loans to farmers according to their needs and in a timely manner,” Singh...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-The Indian Express The Modi government should spell out clearly what it wants to double by 2022 — nominal or real incomes. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (NABARD) 34th foundation day celebrations on July 12 saw a day-long deliberation on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022”. This was an event at Vigyan Bhavan in the national capital, where the ministries of agriculture and finance...

-The Indian Express Price and technology-led incentives alone will not help boost pulses and oilseeds production in the country. Indian agriculture is governed by an impossible trinity or “trilemma” that requires it to meet three simultaneous objectives — global competitiveness, social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability — each often at odds with the other two. Official policy has largely tilted towards supporting the first two goals, with token, if not grudging, acknowledgement of...