Sivadasan's five-acre farm used to be a solitary patch in Kerala's Palakkad district, with bitter gourd, cucumber, cow peas and lady's finger growing amid a landscape dotted with paddy fields and plantations of rubber and spices. Just five years later, more than 1.45 lakh farmers in the southern state have joined Sivadasan and started growing vegetables, reflecting a palpable shift sweeping across the Indian countryside. "Vegetables are always more profitable than paddy,"...
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Despite good monsoon, farmers blame NREGA for low profits
-Reuters Cotton farmer Ravindra Krishna Patil in Maharashtra should be feeling flush after strong monsoon rains and a good crop, but high costs have cast a pall over his preparations for the festive season. Instead of splashing out on gold jewellery, appliances or maybe even a car during the biggest shopping season of the year, 28-year-old Patil must count his rupees after costs of everything from fuel to labour soared while cotton...
More »Not in writing, but government to enforce sub-limits on rice & wheat exports by Prabha Jagannathan
The formal notification allowing exports of 5 million tonnes of rice and wheat under the open general licence (OGL) will not specify separate cap for cereals, but the government will monitor exports to ensure a ceiling of 2 mt for wheat and 3 mt for rice. "We have had problems earlier with the courts on specification of quantity ceiling under OGL exports and on specific allocation of export quantities to exporters....
More »The PDS in Rural Orissa: Against the Grain? by Ankita Aggarwal
A report from a sample survey of the functioning of the public distribution system in 12 villages in two districts in Orissa, a state usually associated with a poor PDS. While there are errors in exclusion and inclusion of households covered, there has been a vast improvement in operation of the PDS; below the poverty line households seem to be receiving their entitlements. The households also express a strong preference...
More »'Monsoon rains revive sharply after two-week lull'
-Reuters India's monsoon rains revived in rice, oilseeds, lentils and cereals growing areas over the past week, weather office sources said on Thursday, snapping a two-week long lull and improving output prospects for the summer sown crops. Last year, rainfall was 26 percent below normal in the week to Aug 11 after a weak start, but it picked up during the four-month season and ended normal. It is expected that this year's rains...
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