The government has enhanced credit to the agriculture sector by Rs 1 lakh crore in the Budget but the pressure to meet the target has been showing on the bottom lines. All government banks are reporting an increase in their bad debts on farms loans ranging between 80% and 2000% in the first nine months of 2010-11. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur reported the highest increase in non-performing assets...

If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million, FAO said today in its 2010-11 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture report. Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, the report said. But this is not because women...

With food inflation hovering in the double digit bracket for most part of 2010-11 and the aam aadmi up in arms, all hopes were pinned on the Union Budget 2011-12 for giving a new fillip to the farm sector. But the budget has disappointed most, in spite of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee allocating Rs 14,744 crore for agriculture. “An increase of only 2.6 per cent over last year makes the...

The targeted four per cent growth in the agriculture sector could be achieved if agricultural schemes such as System of Rice Intensification and Dryland Farming, initiated in Tamil Nadu, are replicated across India, the Planning Commission has said. "India, producing around 210-220 million tonnes of foodgrains annually, has to increase the productivity from two tonnes per hectare against the world average of four tonnes,'' the Member of the Planning Commission, Dr...

Buoyed by a fresh Rs 400-crore fillip to transform the east into the country’s next food bowl, the state has set its eyes on a chunk of Rs 60 crore to give shape to what is being termed as the second green revolution. Speaking to The Telegraph, state agriculture secretary A.K. Singh said the department was drafting a detailed proposal that would be submitted to a central team, which will visit...