The rural population is at present estimated at 85 crores. Ten per cent of the households are completely landless. Another 52 per cent have holdings of less than 0.2 hectare. The per capita agricultural land in the rural areas has come down to 0.12 hectare. According to the National Sample Survey, the annual income of an agricultural household from farming is less than Rs 12,000 and from all sources it...
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Shrinking credit to farmers
At a time when the flow of institutional credit has tended to look up, pointing to economic recovery, the disbursal of agricultural credit has dipped by an astonishing 30 per cent, putting the prospects of recovery in the drought-ravaged farm sector in jeopardy. The numbers released by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) indicate that both commercial banks and cooperative credit outlets are lagging behind their targets...
More »Of hunger and its eradication by Sadanand Menon
More Indians go to bed hungry today than they did on the eve of Independence 62 years ago So, more Indians go to bed hungry today than they did on the eve of Independence sixty two years ago. The per capita calorie intake, experts say, has dropped to what it was at the end of World War II. On top of it now, over 25 per cent of the country...
More »Jhabua on its way to becoming Vidarbha-II?
With shift to a high-input cash cropping system, the debt process bears an uncanny resemblance to the ‘catastrophe’ If it does not rain over the next week, farmers of Petlawad tehsil and its neighbouring regions in Jhabua might have to go the same way as their brethren in Vidarbha did. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan recently declared Jhabua, along with 36 other districts, drought-hit. The agricultural apparatus in...
More »Drought management for rural livelihood security
Agriculture is not just a food producing machine but the backbone of the livelihood of 60 per cent of Indians. The extensive drought spotlights a situation of mass rural deprivation and a mindset that is insensitive to it. But there are some encouraging signs. What should be done to meet the challenge? There are reports in financial newspapers that the ongoing drought affecting nearly 200 districts in the country may...
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