-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...
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Farm Policy: The window for agricultural reform is closing fast -Pravesh Sharma
-The Indian Express It’s not as if the Centre cannot initiate reforms in agriculture. In fact, in at least three major areas, the onus for leadership and action lies with the Centre. For over a year, there have been news reports of Niti Aayog, the erstwhile Planning Commission’s new avatar, working on a wide-ranging reform package for India’s farm sector. In recent months, teasers have appeared hinting at the Centre’s plans of...
More »The overrated urban spinoff -Raghav Gaiha
-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...
More »50 yrs on, Punjab leads agri charts, Haryana catching up -Gurpreet Singh Nibber and Rajesh Moudgill
-Hindustan Times Chandigarh: ON FARM FRONT Food security of the nation continues to be in the hands of Punjab that contributes the maximum share of wheat to the central pool but its farmers need reforms, not sops, to find a way out of the debt trap. Haryana started at a disadvantage but is gaining ground though the state govt’s role leaves much to be desired. Punjab awaits another revolution The tumultuous trifurcation of Punjab...
More »From plate to plough: A clear trend towards non-vegetarianism in India -Ashok Gulati & Smriti Verma
-The Indian Express But per capita meat consumption remains relatively low. This has implications for nutritional and food security. In the eyes of the world, India is seen as a vegetarian country. Presumably, this impression has been created by our best brand ambassadors from political, spiritual and yoga circles. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a strict vegetarian. The popular yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, and many other Hindu religious leaders too, are vegetarians...
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