-The Hindu Business Line High inputs costs, low price for produce and water scarcity are major challenges Mumbai: Despite the Rs. 34,000 crore farm-loan waiver in Maharashtra, farmers’ lives are unlikely to change for the better as they will continue to be up against familiar problems such as high input costs, low prices for their produce, and scant water availability, say farm sector experts. They are of the opinion that the core issues...
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For farmers today, grass is 'greener' than rice and pulses -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India Growing grass and selling it in the market may be more profitable than cultivating crops like wheat, rice, pulses or oilseeds. This bizarre conclusion, a reflection of the desperate conditions of Indian farmers, can be reached if one looks at how the value of various crops has changed over the last five years. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, the total value of cereals and pulses produced in the country went...
More »Demonetisation apart, cheaper imports too hit the farm sector -Tejinder Narang
-The Financial Express The current agitation of farmers on cereal, oilseeds and vegetables has attracted a lot of analysis with regards to the causes. Many such analyses have converged on low hikes in MSP in the last three-four years as the major cause, and the general public also believes so. Stocking limits, poor warehousing facilities, export bans, lack of a properly developed food processing industry and free trade in commodity exchanges...
More »Waiving farm loans is not only bad for the economy but also detrimental to interests of the farmer -Ram Singh
-The Economic Times blog Farmers, from Punjab in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, have started agitations demanding farm loans be waived. The Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra governments have already considered it politically expedient to write them off. Some other states may follow the suit. However, such decisions are as misguided as they are misleading. Nonetheless, it will be a mistake to treat the agitations as a domino effect of...
More »Farm provides growth impetus
-The Telegraph New Delhi: A robust farm growth of 5.2 per cent in the March quarter pushed GDP growth up to 7.1 per cent. However, growth in the sector was lower than the previous quarter's expansion of 6.9 per cent. Farm growth for the full fiscal zoomed to 4.9 per cent because of good rainfall and record food-grain production compared with a near flat 0.7 per cent expansion in 2015-16. "The third...
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