-The Indian Express Punjab’s farmers are losing interest in planting new trees, with prices halving from their peaks. Jalandhar/ Ludhiana: Sandeep Singh Randhawa grew paddy and wheat on his 65-acre land at Talwandi Lal Singh village in Gurdaspur district’s Batala tehsil. That was till the late eighties, when he first planted poplar on the edges of his field. The returns encouraged him to expand the area under these trees — each...
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Micro-irrigation lags far behind potential, shows study -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com The study says that only 7.73 million hectares in India, compared to a potential 69.5 million hectares, were covered under micro-irrigation by March 2015 New Delhi: Farming uses over 90% of India’s fresh water, but despite the potential savings micro-irrigation can offer, its penetration is abysmally low, shows a recent study. Just 7.73 million hectares in India, compared to a potential 69.5 million hectares, were covered under micro-irrigation by March 2015, shows...
More »Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink — if it’s bottled -M Somasekhar
-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: In another push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project — Swachh Bharat Mission — the Centre wants to reduce plastic waste by curtailing the use of bottled water at official meetings. The move aims to avoid the use of harmful plastics and promote safe drinking water. Does this mean the ubiquitous water bottles will soon disappear from high-profile meetings and workshops? Yes, if one goes by an...
More »Modi govt wakes up too late to the agrarian crisis -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com A look at the past three budgets shows that the government took note of the crisis only in 2016 On 24 April 2014, about a month before Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a new government at the centre, the India Meteorological Department made an ominous forecast. The four-month-long southwest monsoon which irrigates more than half of India’s farmlands was likely to be deficient. Over the next few months the...
More »Centre asks states to scale up DBT scheme for food subsidy -Sandip Das
-The Financial Express In a bid to curb pilferage of foodgrains in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Centre on Saturday asked the states to opt for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under which the subsidy component is credited to bank accounts and allows the beneficiaries to buy foodgrains from the market. However, for implementing DBT, the states must complete digitisation of beneficiary list and seed bank account details for fund transfer....
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