-Business Standard Govt should revamp agricultural marketing to increase farmers' earnings and amend land-leasing laws Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has met farm sector representatives for pre-Budget consultations at a time Indian agriculture is passing through a bad patch - especially because of two years of consecutive Drought. Predictably, therefore, most participants pitched for more credit on soft terms, higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops and the expansion of irrigation facilities to...

-The Indian Express Also seek higher allocation for Price Stabilisation Fund in a pre-Budget meet Farmers’ organisations, food and fertiliser companies and agriculture experts on Monday urged finance minister Arun Jaitely to ensure that farmers get  remunerative prices for their produce and make sufficient Budget outlay to create  irrigation facilities in the remaining rain-fed areas. They also sought increase in the outlay for expanding the number of agriculture market yards and higher allocation...

-Business Standard Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh): For Kamlesh Patidar, a marginal farmer in Somiya village, this financial year has been no ordinary Drought. In 2008, he had surrendered some of his land to the state government for a small dam in his village. The dam was completed in 2012 to irrigate 754 hectares. Now Patidar is trying to save his garlic crop by using piped water from the other side of the...

-The Indian Express The seeming revival over the last two quarters reverses the trend of declining employment under MGNREGA seen during the first year of the Modi government. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship welfare programme of the previous UPA government, appears to be staging a revival of sorts. And this turnaround is being attributed mainly to better monitoring by the Centre and timely release of funds. The July-September...

-Livemint.com Wheat sowing is lower by 5.6%, pulses by nearly 7% and oilseeds shows a lag of nearly 12%, compared to the normal area sown by this time of the year New Delhi: An unusually dry and warm winter across northern India has impacted sowing of winter crops, even as the window for planting is nearing its end. While overall sowing of Rabi (winter) crops is lagging behind by 6% compared to...