-Down to Earth For every million rupees spent on agricultural research, 328 people are pulled out of poverty. In contrast, the same amount spent on power subsidies brings only 23 people come out of poverty. The message is clear. With the Union elections only a few months away, the Centre should prioritise capital investments over populist subsidies to deliver on its promise of strengthening the farm sector. This is important, especially when the...
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For The Farmer's Future -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express It is important to evaluate the consequences of the Centre’s agriculture policy. With elections around the corner, it’s too late for a course correction of the farm sector, but it’s an opportune time to document the unintended consequences of half-baked policies for the next five years. Otherwise, the momentum of existing policies will continue to feed rural economic misery. Agriculture GDP growth plummeted just as India’s agricultural trade surplus,...
More »Will the new scheme give Aasha to farmers? -Devinder Sharma
-The Hindu Business Line Hiking MSPs is not enough. The govt must work out a mechanism to provide income transfers to farmers The launch of a new umbrella scheme — Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) — last week, is a response to the growing farmers’ anger over the last few years. Farmers have been demanding an assured income to emerge out of the continuing agrarian crisis. With open market prices...
More »Why are rural wages crawling when farm GDP growth is galloping -Gaurav Choudhury
-MoneyControl.com A continued property market slowdown and a vegetable glut may have pushed landless labourers back to villages, seeking daily jobs and depressing wage growth India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth looks set to cruise along the 7-7.5 percent trail, partly aided by steady Farm Incomes and record harvests on the back of plentiful summer rains over the last three years. But it may still be early to open the bubbly yet. The...
More »From Plate to Plough: Lean year as a foundation -Ashok Gulati & Shweta Saini
-The Indian Express NABARD’s new survey offers a baseline to double farmers’ incomes. But is a survey done in a drought year a reliable yardstick? On August 16, NABARD presented the nation with a gift when it released the results of its All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS). Among other things, the survey estimates 2015-16 farmers’ income levels. In February 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented his vision of doubling...
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