-The Hindu Business Line In the Cauvery delta’s worst drought in 140 years, a padyatra brings home the harsh realities of how Tamil farmers are living on the edge and what sustains their resilience A farmer sells his sugar cane to the local public sector sugar mill, where he is mandated to sell his crop. Instead of paying, the factory hands him a slip of paper. Eighteen months pass by and he...

-The Hindu Business Line Proposes single trading licence, single-point levy of market fee New Delhi: The Agriculture Ministry has come up with a new model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act proposing single-point levy of market fee across a State and a united single trading licence for cost-effectiveness of transactions. It has also suggested abolition of fragmentation of market with the State/Union Territory by removing the concept of notified market area insofar as...

For the fifth year in a row, horticulture production is expected to surpass foodgrain production. However, as compared to the crop years 2014-15 and 2015-16, when drought was faced by most Indian states, horticulture production this year is predicted to rise by a meagre amount.   As compared to 2014-15 and 2015-16, horticulture production this year is expected to rise by 2.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. However, as compared to...

After facing intense criticisms from various sections of the society following its policy of demonetisation during November-December, 2016, the NDA government has finally something solid to cheer about. Riding on the back of a normal monsoon, gross foodgrain production is likely to reach a record level of about 272.0 million tonnes in the crop year 2016-17. As per the second advance estimates of foodgrain production, which has been released by...

-Scroll.in India's social-sector spending remains woefully low and despite claims of being a pro-farmer Budget, the effective allocations are nearly the same as last year. Some commentators expected that the Union Budget 2017-’18 would craft a sharp departure from earlier budgets of this government. This it would do to mitigate the immense suffering of millions of casual workers, farmers and small traders caused by the “shock and awe” of the astoundingly callous...