Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...

-The Times of India   Farmers of Kundagol and surrounding villages of Dharwad took out a procession at Tahsildar's office demanding adequate supply of BT cotton Seeds here on Wednesday. The farmers came to buy cotton Seeds at Raith Sampark Kendra at Cotton market from distant places, but the farmers were reportedly upset and expressed anguish over the insufficient supply of cotton Seeds particularly Kanaka BT cotton Seeds. Angry farmers, who...

Deccan Herald   When the researchers and agriculturists across the country are having heated debates on introducing BT brinjal in the country, they have forgotten to protect the desi Brinjal variety ‘Sunde Badane’, which is grown only in few places. The farmers too are in tight spot with no funds to try out new methods of farming to protect these types. Though India and China are said to be the origin of...

-The Hindu   The Department of Organic and Seed Certification has certified 93,552 tonnes seed from the paddy, millets, pulses, cotton, oil Seeds and vegetable varieties. The purpose behind certifying the Seeds was to convey to the farmers that they could be assured of the purity of the Seeds, the department said in a press release. The purity of the Seeds had been maintained and that they were of good quality. The Seed...

Food-price inflation in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, may accelerate in the second half as farmers are paying 20 percent more to grow crops, according to the commission that helps set minimum farm-product prices. “The cost of production is going up very fast,” Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “The labor cost has gone up dramatically in the past one year...