-The Indian Express Even though Shamli tops in sugarcane production, there is nearly Rs 300 crore dues for district farmers. Shamli/ Kairana: Mohkam Singh supplied 22 buffalo carts of cane, each laden with 18 quintals, to the sugar mill at Shamli belonging to Sir Shadi Lal Enterprises Ltd in the 2015-16 crushing season. These 400 quintals should have fetched about Rs 1.12 lakh at the Uttar Pradesh government’s state advised price (SAP)...

-Business Standard Integrates climate change concerns and promotes private investment and role in forestry The NDA government has made public its draft National Forest Policy to replace the one that was crafted in 1988. Incorporating consequences of climate change but entirely ignoring one of the three forest related laws, the Forest Rights Act, the policy brings new focus to plantations, growing trees outside the forest lands  and wood industry. While the policy continues...

-The Indian Express Between 2005 and 2012, structural changes drove poverty reduction — non-agricultural incomes rose the fastest, and the largest shifts from farm to salaried non-farm employment were seen among the poorest. The significant shift from farm work to non-farm sources of income accelerated the decline in poverty in India. Non-farm jobs pay more than agricultural labour, and incomes from both were propelled by a steep rise in wages for rural...

-The Indian Express After Delhi, it is Maharashtra’s turn to attempt liberating fruits & vegetables from APMC shackles. Pune/ Vashi: Spread over 70 hectares land off the Old Mumbai-Pune highway, it’s a place where more than Rs 10,000 crore worth of fruits, vegetables and other farm produce gets traded annually. But right now, it’s also the scene of a prabodhan, a mass awakening campaign by traders and commission agents that could gather...

-The Indian Express The Maharashtra Gramin Bank has written to the district collectors of eight districts expressing inability to disburse crop loans for the upcoming kharif season. Mumbai: The prediction of a good monsoon may not be enough to bring cheers to farmers of Marathwada, as questions are being raised over disbursement of crop loans in the region. The Maharashtra Gramin Bank has written to the district collectors of eight districts...