-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Less than 20 per cent Indian farmers have crop insurance, exposing a majority of them to the vagaries of weather and leading some of them to take their lives, as is being reported after untimely rains damaged Rabi crops. According to an industry chamber Assocham-Skymet Weather study released on Sunday, at the all-India level, only 19 per cent farmers reported ever having insured their crops. The...
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The Centre asks Bankers to Restructure Crop Loans and Insurance
-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Agriculture The Central Government has asked State Level Bankers' Committees to facilitate timely restructuring of crop loans. With restructuring, the loan repayment period would be extended. The Home Ministry has also written to states to keep 10% of SDRF fund reserved for "local disasters" such as heavy rain which are to be declared at par with national disasters and use this money for distressed farmers. This...
More »Protecting the small farmer -Ananth Gudipati
-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...
More »Land Acquisition Bill: Missing the big, bleak picture -Sanjay Kumar & Pranav Gupta
-The Hindu With the Land Acquisition Bill in the limelight, nobody is talking about the real reforms that farmers need. A major survey finds that almost half the respondents don't want to continue with agriculture. The unseasonal rains over the last few weeks have resulted in enormous loss of crop output across many States of North India. This has shifted attention from the issue of land acquisition to other important problems faced...
More »Enough cereals, but need to import oil, pulses: Centre to Supreme Court
-PTI NEW DELHI: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that though the country has become self sufficient in production of cereals, it is dependent on imports to bridge the gap between domestic production and demand of edible oil and pulses. Responding to a PIL on increasing farmer suicides in the country, the Ministry of Agriculture said in an affidavit, "India has not only ensured self-sufficiency in most of the agricultural crops...
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