-Hindustan Times The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or coarse cereal production, mostly grown by small and poor farmers New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to include millets in the public distribution system for which it is procuring these grains at federally fixed minimum support prices, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or...
More »SEARCH RESULT
In rural Manipur, women feel the heat of climate change -Ninglun Hanghal
-TheThirdPole.net Women farmers are struggling to grow crops in an increasingly hostile environment in north-east India It is that time of the year when the weather is dry and windy. Hmuoki has to work even harder than usual to water and fertilize her four acres of farmland on the banks of the Khuga River in Churachandpur district of Manipur, north-east India. Hmuoki struggles to ensure her family has enough food to eat during...
More »Is the government marketing millets right? -Ranjit K Sahu, Ravi Shankar Behera, Bidyut Mohanty & Sibabrata Choudhury
-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...
More »For India's Farmers, Budget 2018 Is Nothing but a Hoax -Kirankumar Vissa
-TheWire.in The finance minister has made a big announcement on minimum support price, but he should make it clear whether all he is promising is to take the prices back to the UPA-II levels. The government has done it again. Like last year, there has been much hype about a pro-farmer Budget, but in actuality it rests on misleading claims which don’t address the farming crisis. Last year, the agriculture credit target...
More »Budget 2018: Focus on MSP ideal for tackling farm distress -Ramesh Chand
-The Economic Times The agriculture sector and farmers are passing through a difficult phase. The sector suffered a blow from back-to-back droughts during 2014-15 and 2015-16 followed by low and depressed farm level prices during 2016-17 and kharif 2017, mainly due to global price trends. This has intensified the demand for ensuring MSP (minimum support price) and raising MSP. The forthcoming budget needs to take a call to launch effective measures to...
More »