-The Indian Express Despite deforestation and human encroachment, the country’s forest cover has remained stable around 20% since Independence. This is because the loss of natural old-growth forests is compensated on paper by expanding monoculture plantations. Since Independence, a fifth of India’s land has consistently been under forests. The population has increased more than three times since 1947, and from 1951-80, a total 42,380 sq km of forestland was diverted — some...
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There's No Reason to Be Confused on How to Calculate the Right MSP -R Ramakumar
-TheWire.in The Swaminathan Commission was clear in its recommendations, and the rationale offered by the NITI Aayog to rule out the use of comprehensive cost is dubious at best. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in Budget 2018-19 that his “government has decided to keep MSP [minimum support price] for the all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one and half times of their production cost”. This announcement set off a flurry...
More »Govt needs to balance farmer, consumer Interests: Assocham
-PTI The government has to walk a tightrope to balance farmers' and consumers' Interest in view of the Budget announcement on MSP that could further push up inflation, industry body Assocham said today. In the Union Budget 2018-19, the government promised to fix the minimum support price (MSP) at 50 per cent higher than the cost of production. "The Budget with a huge focus on agriculture has raised expectation level in rural landscape....
More »Rajasthan govt waives loans of up to Rs 50,000
-The Times of India JAIPUR: Close on the heels of BJP’s rout in parliamentary and assembly bypolls earlier this month, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday announced a waiver for farm loans up to Rs 50,000 taken by small and marginal farmers. The waiver was part of the last budget of her government’s term. The sop to woo agitating farmers ahead of the assembly polls, scheduled for the end of...
More »Loan waiver to bonus payments, poll-bound states target farmers -Deep Mukherjee & Milind Ghatwai
-The Indian Express While Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara seeks to recover from the recent disastrous bypoll where the BJP lost two Lok Sabha seats and an assembly seat to the Congress, MP’s three-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan aims to mitigate three-time anti-incumbency. From crop loan and land revenue waivers to bonus payments and free crop storage, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh announced a slew of sops Monday targeting farmers and rural voters...
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