-The Hindu Business Line Farmers have been borrowing from banks to repay lenders and reversing the cycle Ahmedabad: In the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, a saying goes: “A farmer is always indebted. He is born in debt and dies with a debt. What matters is how he manages this debt in his life.” There is a skew in Gujarat’s water resource distribution. Saurashtra covers 31 per cent of the State’s landmass but gets...

-Down to Earth More than 180 farmer organisations from across the country proposed Bills related to debt waiver and fair crop prices in a mock parliament  On the second day of a protest organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), farmers from more than 180 farmer organisations across the country proposed a bill each on debt waiver and fair prices for crops. For two days, thousands of farmers had gathered...

-The Indian Express Union government must address structural issues in agricultural policy, allow states greater autonomy. Farmers from across the country are out on Delhi’s streets agitating just as the deliberations for the 2018 budget are beginning and it’s time to seek solutions to the structural issues that plague the system. The “one-size-fits-all” policy created for the farm sector is self-destructive in design and programmes meant to double farmer incomes are collapsing. The...

-IANS New Delhi: Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav on Monday demanded that the central government waive loans of all farmers across states, addressing a farmers' rally in the national capital. "We have two demands, one that the remunerative prices should be production cost plus 50 percent, which was recommended by the Swaminathan Commission and promised by Narendra Modi," Yadav said. "And second demand is a one-time waiver of all Agricultural loans. Most steps...

-The Hindu We need to revisit the credit policy with a focus on the outreach of banks and financial inclusion Since Independence, one of the primary objectives of India’s agricultural policy has been to improve farmers’ access to institutional credit and reduce their dependence on informal credit. As informal sources of credit are mostly usurious, the government has improved the flow of adequate credit through the nationalisation of commercial banks, and the...