-TheWire.in Declining budget allocation and actual expenditure on schemes geared towards agriculture, sanitation and housing have brought the government's seriousness to the cause of rural welfare under suspicion. Direct benefit transfer has dominated the majority of the discussion on the Interim Budget in the context of agriculture. However, in order to properly understand the seriousness of the government to the cause of farmers and related issues of rural development, we should also...

-The Economic Times Agricultural straw is mostly used as fodder for cattle or for making cardboard in areas where farmers harvest their crop by hand. New Delhi: Government think-tank Niti Aayog will soon come out with a policy roadmap to promote alternative use of crop residue, which farmers continue to burn in the fields despite a ban in some states to curb air pollution. The advisory body has floated an expression of...

-The Hindu Business Line Across India, groundwater schemes are up, but surface water schemes are declining Pune: In 14 years (2001-02 to 2014-15), net irrigation in India increased just 20 per cent, with an alarming trend of massive groundwater extraction. Per data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, while 41 per cent of the net irrigated area in India got water from tube wells in 2001-02, tubewell irrigation increased to...

-The Hindu Business Line Despite a lively debate in recent weeks on whether food prices have now moved to being structurally low, analysts believe that this is only a transient phenomenon and food prices, on a sequential basis, have already begun to rise. Retail inflation may be at an 18-month low but prices, especially of food items, are likely to see a pick-up over the next few months with average inflation expected...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Switch to modern production systems has led to decline in use of farmers’ varieties and landraces’ As few as nine crops account for two-thirds of the global food output, and on-farm crop diversity has declined significantly over the decades as farmers have switched from traditional production systems that utilise farmers’ varieties and landraces to modern production systems depending on officially released varieties, shows a report on global biodiversity...