-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Agriculture) The Government formulated a Model Act on Agri-Marketing reform in 2003 and Model Rules in 2007. The Government has since been pursuing the State Governments to adopt the Model Act and Rules. The Model Act inter-alia provides for alternative models through which farmers can access larger markets viz. setting up of markets in private and cooperative, contract farming, farmer consumer market and direct marketing. License...

-The Hindu Ryots can use it at all bank ATMs to withdraw cash to buy fertilizer or seed TIRUPATI (Andhra Pradesh): ‘RuPay', the multipurpose smart card envisaged to enable payments from various financial institutions to beneficiaries through an impressive network of ATMs, is all set to benefit the farming community more than ever before, said National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala. Speaking after releasing and distributing the...

-The Indian Express Families of some Punjab farmers who committed suicide get half the amount govt promised, many others yet to get any. Punjab: In March 2009, the Punjab government had cleared Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families of every farmer who had committed suicide since 2000. This was also part of the ruling party's 2012 election manifesto. So far, however, the government has compensated only a section of them,...

-Down to Earth UPA gives sops under MGNREGS to attract rural voters ahead of elections WITH most of its recent schemes struggling, a desperate UPA government is pinning its hopes on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to win votes in 2014 elections. The government is overhauling the employment scheme that helped it return to power in 2009 for a reason. It touches the lives of over 55 per cent...

-The Indian Express Kutch (Gujarat): Bhajan Singh, 62, remembers the time curious villagers turned up to see a borewell his father Gopal Singh had dug up. The year was 1969 and it was the first time Sumrasar village, near Bhuj in Kutch district, had had a borewell. Few had ever seen it work, as they depended entirely on rainwater for the barely one crop they harvested a year. Originally from Pakistan, Gopal...