The budget is more concerned about the consumer than the grower A LOOMING food crisis in the world and high food inflation rates at home made Pranab Mukherjee’s proposals to boost agriculture in his 2011 budget more keenly watched than usual. These are factors that clearly weighed with the finance minister who repeatedly said that his principal concern this year has been the continuing high food prices. The squeeze on the...

Stating that about 70% of the farming community in the country is still out of the reach of banks, MP Pralhad Joshi said co-operative banks should try to bring more farmers under the banking network, thereby giving a boost to the agricultural sector. Speaking at the 75th anniversary celebrations of Hubli Primary Co-Operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank here on Sunday, he said whatever financial facility the government is extending towards...

Surrounded by lush green wheat and yellow flowering mustard fields at Ekdanta primary school, it is noon and the 57 children in two combined classes are fidgety - impatient for the school served midday meal. The hot meals are served by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, the largest non- profit in India, in partnership with the government’s school meal programme that covers 120 million children in 1.26 million schools across the country. A...

Small farmers granted waiver by 2008 central scheme win a roller-coaster legal battle In A significant ruling, the Gujarat High Court has granted loan waiver and relief of around Rs 22 crore to 312 farmers who got these loans from an urban co-operative bank for direct agricultural and allied activities under a central scheme. The court also held that no new condition can be added by the HC to a scheme...

Forty years ago Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies. Today, public policy projects itself as pro-farmer but it does it half-heartedly, complains Swaminathan. M S Swaminathan, member of the National Advisory Council and father of the Green Revolution says the government's allocation for agriculture is insignificant. Doesn't the Union Budget reflect a new focus on agriculture?...