-Vikalp.ind.in The sudden imposition of a national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has impacted the agricultural sector in many different ways. Of these, the disruption in the functioning of the agricultural markets has been one of the most significant. The lockdown was announced with little planning. Despite the fact that the rabi crops were being harvested or were about to be harvested in many parts of the country, the central...
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Why Sitharaman’s 'Pulses For All' Promise Still Hasn't Been Implemented -Kabir Agarwal and Dheeraj Mishra
-TheWire.in New Delhi: On March 26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government had decided that all ration card holders in India will be provided one kilogram of pulses every month starting April, for a period of three months. This was a part of the PM Garib Kalyan package – the Centre’s only relief measure so far to deal with the consequences of the lockdown for the poor. Almost a month...
More »Only 10% free pulses under govt scheme distributed to poor so far -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express According to sources, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which comes under administrative control of the Agriculture Ministry, has been tasked with ensuring supply of pulses from the buffer stocks it maintains. Announced as part of the COVID-19 relief package about a month ago, free pulses — 1 kg per family — to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are yet to reach...
More »Agricultural Supply Chains during the COVID-19 Lockdown -Vikas Rawal and Ankur Verma
-Society for Social and Economic Research The sudden announcement of a national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a severe disruption of food supply chains. The lockdown was announced without any preparation, and nothing was mentioned about excluding agricultural production and marketing operations from the purview of the lockdown when the Prime Minister first announced these restrictions. Once the lockdown was announced, governments scrambled to keep the...
More »Modi asks states to alter mandi rules for direct delivery to reduce crowd -Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard Agriculture is a state subject and the Central government has limited powers to ensure implementation of the guidelines Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called upon state governments to quickly make necessary changes to rules governing their mandis so that direct marketing of farm produce can be done without crowding the markets. Addressing the chief ministers during a four-hour long meeting to discuss the modalities for extending the lockdown, Modi said...
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