-The Times of India BHOPAL: Starved of cash, 15 farmers of a village in Gwalior deposited 45 quintals of paddy as their children's school fees on Saturday. The school management sold the crop at a mandi and got a cheque of Rs 58,500. Bhitarwar region of Gwalior is known as the rice bowl of Madhya Pradesh, and paddy is the main crop of the kharif season. Villages here have run out of...
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Farmers short of cash, West Bengal stares at 1/3 paddy wastage -Aniruddha Ghosal
-The Indian Express The problem is particularly pronounced in Bardhaman district — known as the rice bowl of Bengal. Kolkata: West Bengal’s agriculture department has estimated that 35 per cent of the monsoon paddy might go waste if not harvested in time, an exercise that has been badly hit with farmers lacking the cash to pay for labour. The estimate is part of an agriculture department report, commissioned to assess the impact...
More »Demonetisation: How the cash crisis can be used to tame rural commercial capital -Pravesh Sharma
-The Indian Express These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’ — enjoy privileged access to formal credit networks. In her insightful study of the working of agricultural markets in West Bengal, British development studies scholar Barbara Harris-White has documented in detail how trade in farm produce is controlled through a web of rural and semi-urban agro commercial enterprises. These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’...
More »Punjab: Farmers to escape fines for burning crops due to upcoming polls -Baishali Adak
-Mail Today "We do not wish to risk upsetting farmers just ahead of the polls," the Punjab agriculture department officials said. Punjab has pleaded helplessness on the farm fire menace clearly citing the impending Assembly elections in March-April 2017. Members of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) told Mail Today that at two recent meetings, Punjab agriculture department officials prayed they may be excused from fining farmers for burning paddy...
More »Pulses policy must break new ground -G Chandrashekhar
-The Hindu Business Line This kharif, with its high pulses output, provides an opportunity to push procurement, processing — and lift curbs on exports Pulses have been in the news over the last one year and for all the wrong reasons. Sharply lower harvests two years in a row (2014-15 and 2015-16) due to a below-normal southwest monsoon in the kharif season and unseasonal rains during the rabi harvest combined with rising...
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