-Newsclick.in “Our population today is around 136 crore. Where will you get food grains for them through zero budget farming? This is sheer madness.” There is an inherent seductive charm to the term zero budget natural farming, for it makes the arduous occupation of agriculture appear beguilingly simple, an economic proposition without any risk or even requirement of capital. Coined by the Vidarbha-based farmer, Subhash Palekar, who was bestowed with the Padma...

-Livemint.com * FM vows to invest widely in agriculture infrastructure, but offers little to revive rural income and demand * In terms of new schemes, the budget announced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana for the fisheries sector and another to boost traditional industries In March 2018, Rakesh Sangwan, 27, a farmer in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, stopped watering his tomato plants. The crop slowly withered away and, subsequently, it was mowed down by a...

-Scroll.in/ India Spend Women earn between Rs 70 and Rs 80 for every Rs 100 that men earn. India’s workforce has fewer women than it did six years ago: no more than 18% in rural areas are employed, compared to 25% in 2011-’12 and 14% in urban areas from 15% in 2011-’12. However, in urban areas, the percentage of women in salaried jobs has increased from 35.6% in 2004 to 52.1% in...

-The Indian Express The one indicator that will worry the Devendra Fadnavis-led government the most as it spells out its final budget before the state polls on Tuesday is the negative growth in the crop sector. Mumbai: Suffering from a crippling drought and growing agrarian distress, Maharashtra’s economic growth remained stagnant at 7.5 per cent. According to the Economic Survey Report (ESR) 2018-19, which was presented to the state legislature on...

-The Economic Times The government must extend benefits of the PM Kisan scheme to landless farmers and farm workers, said Ajay Vir Jakhar, chairman of the Bharat Krishak Samaj. Promote agri- startups particularly in rural regions, expand micro-irrigation, treat solar energy as third crop to augment income of farmers and enact labour reforms to push creation of off-farm jobs, were few of the suggestion which representatives of the agricultural and rural development...