-Livemint.com Panel aims to find ways to diversify risks in farming, examine how integrated farming can boost incomes New Delhi: The central government has set up a panel to suggest ways to double farm incomes by 2022, as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The task of the inter-ministerial committee will prepare a blueprint to transition farm policies from being production oriented to based on incomes or value addition. The committee will look...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Projected work under the rural job guarantee scheme for 2016-17 is down 10 per cent after a rare boost in the last financial year, suggesting a tightening of the purse strings following a year of heavy expenditure on the programme. The rural development ministry has approved the generation of 217 crore person-days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, following last year's approval for...

-The Indian Express Karnataka’s experience shows success depends on taking along all stakeholders. The government of India launched the National Agricultural Market Scheme in July 2015 in 585 markets and has, since April 14, started e-trading on the platform. This is in line with the Union Budget’s target to double farmers’ incomes in six years. To be sure, a doubling of incomes by 2022 would require them to grow at an annual...

-FirstPost.com New Delhi: India is in the grip of a drought for the second year running. On an average, 9 farmers committed suicide daily in Maharashtra alone last year. A fight against drought of course needs adequate supply of drinking water and foodgrain but it also requires the government to augment existing Central initiatives and launch new schemes for affected states. Is the government doing enough to help drought affected regions? Last week,...

-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...