-FAO MDG target to halve proportion of world's hungry still within reach by end of 2015  Rome: About 805 million people in the world, or one in nine, suffer from hunger, according to a new UN report released today. The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI 2014) confirmed a positive trend which has seen the number of hungry people decline globally by more than 100 million over the last decade and...

-The Indian Express The MGNREGS stands out as one of the Indian government's most ambitious social schemes, with far-reaching consequences throughout the economy. The only known recipe for poverty eradication is a combination of high growth and high development spending. Neither is sufficient. A recent study (Kapoor and Ahluwalia, 2012) has shown that post-liberalisation, one champion of poverty reduction in India is Andhra Pradesh. This reduction in poverty is widespread, as...

-Down to Earth Working out the details and convergence with other programmes like rural job scheme will take time, say officials One of the ambitious schemes of new government of providing irrigation facility to all farms may not take off before financial year 2016-17. The programme, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana (PMKSY), was announced in this year's budget and Rs 1,000 crore was allocated for it. This allocation may be further enhanced...

In the midst of irregular monsoons affecting agriculture, a new report shows stagnation in the state of irrigation infrastructure. The recent report entitled Infrastructure Statistics 2014 (Third Issue) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has provided information that despite the rise in expenditure on irrigation infrastructure, there has been no substantial improvement in the gross irrigation potential utilized*. Athough expenditure on irrigation has increased from Rs. 36561.64 crores...

-The Statesman Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed anguish over suicides by farmers, whose condition has not improved despite the high rate of economic growth. The reason for this distressing state of affairs is that economic policies are badly crafted. The primary effort of the Government has been to increase agricultural production. The price factor is not taken into consideration, the perception being that the farmer will be better off...