The MoU is also intended to give a push to private investment in agriculture The government last week quietly secured Cabinet approval for a new agreement with the United States that aims, inter alia, at promoting the privatisation of agricultural extension services and facilitating collaborations between American agribusiness and the Indian farm sector. The proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. on ‘Agriculture Cooperation and Food Security’ was approved on...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Horticulture mission raises hopes of farmers by Vidhya Sivaramakrishnan
Central scheme boosts crop yields significantly, but suffers as NREGA’s success eats into the available workforce S. Mallika, 27, is expecting a windfall this year. The farmer from Kurumpatti village in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district owns a 5 acre tract, which has been yielding an annual income of Rs50,000 for her family—until now. This year, Mallika is confident her earning would be six times more—Rs3 lakh—and that too from just 1,000 sq....
More »Now, a farmers’ suicide SENSEX by Sadiq Naqvi
Nearly 2 lakh farmers committed suicide in India since 1997. The share of big five states accounted for 1,22,823 suicides in this 12 year period. The data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau points out that 16,196 farmers in India ended their life in 2008. K Nagaraj, an economist, in his report Farmers' suicides in India: Magnitude, Trends and Spatial Patterns, says, "The title to land was taken as the...
More »Remove misgivings on GM foods, Pawar tells scientists by Gargi Parsai
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday urged agricultural scientists to double their efforts to remove all misgivings on genetically modified (GM) crops from the minds of policy makers and the public. Inaugurating a two-day conference of Vice Chancellors of agricultural universities and meeting of Directors of Indian Council of Agriculture Research here, he said, “The recent decision on Bt. brinjal should not be seen as a setback to our...
More »The blame game around food prices by CP Chandrasekhar
The special meeting of Chief Ministers convened by the Centre indicates that food price inflation remains worrisome. But at the meet the problem was underplayed and little of substance emerged. With food price inflation still running at close to 18 per cent, the UPA government at the Centre has been forced to recognise that it constitutes a problem that deserves as much or more attention than the objective of achieving...
More »