-The Hindu Business Line High inputs costs, low price for produce and water scarcity are major challenges Mumbai: Despite the Rs. 34,000 crore farm-loan waiver in Maharashtra, farmers’ lives are unlikely to change for the better as they will continue to be up against familiar problems such as high input costs, low prices for their produce, and scant water availability, say farm sector experts. They are of the opinion that the core issues...

-Livemint.com Farmers across the country choose cotton and sugarcane over rain-fed pulses like arhar and moong which saw a collapse in their wholesale prices in 2016-17, shows data New Delhi: Following a collapse in wholesale prices of rain-fed pulses like arhar and moong over the past six months, farmers across India have reduced planting of these varieties, data on Kharif sowing released by the agriculture ministry on Friday shows. Simultaneously, farmers have...

-Business Standard Pulses output was estimated at record 22.4 mt in the 2016-17 crop year ending on June Early onset of the monsoon and its progress has LED to an increase in the area sown till Friday of this kharif season, year-on-year. Alongside, the depressed price of pulses have LED more farmers to replace it with cotton in some parts. Farmers have brought almost 10% more area under cultivation over the corresponding period...

-Livemint.com Maharashtra’s capping of farm loan waiver will benefit farmers of drought-prone regions more than those in prosperous western, northern areas Mumbai: By capping the farm loan waiver at Rs1.5 lakh per farmer regardless of land holding, the Maharashtra government has ensured that farmers in the critically affected Marathwada and Vidarbha stand to gain more than those in the prosperous western and northern regions. Farm activists and at least one member of the...

-The Hindu Business Line Using just wholesale price index as deflator could distort real GDP. Price indices for all inputs and outputs would work better Prior to the introduction of the all-India Consumer Price Index, popularly known as CPI combined (rural plus urban), the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was the most useful price index in India. It measured the weekly rhythm of price movement in the country. Since 2009, WPI has been computed...