-The Economic Times Milk prices are likely to go up in 2019, cooperative dairies said, as supplies are less than usual during this period. Lower returns to farmers have led to the drop in milk production in winter, when supplies tend to go up, they said. “Milk prices are bound to increase in 2019. Low stocks of skimmed milk powder (SMP) and a drop in milk supplies compared to previous year are the...

It is being said by economists that unlike the issue of low food production that gripped Indian agriculture for long in the past, the present problem is about farmers not getting remunerative prices against the crops that they are growing. According to farmer leaders, the policymakers are too late to realise that bitter truth. As a result, there is a growing disenchantment in the rural hinterland against the ruling government...

-PTI The government has procured 238.8 lakh tonnes of rice in the current 2018-19 marketing season so far, with purchase in Punjab and Haryana almost over, according to official data. The rice procurement target for the current season (October-September) has been fixed at 375 lakh tonnes. In the previous year, total rice procurement stood at 381.8 lakh tonnes. Procurement is undertaken by state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State agencies for the...

-Economic and Political Weekly In the wake of the central government’s minimum support prices hike for kharif 2018–19, the state government in Madhya Pradesh implemented a variant of the deficiency payments system called the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana for compensating the farmers when market prices fell below MSP. Besides the problems of long delays in payments to farmers, large transaction costs that farmers incurred due to multiple registrations, and the disposal of...

-The Hindu Business Line They not only provide a reliable supply of electricity, but will also help reduce the subsidy outgo of States Two-thirds of the total irrigated area in India uses groundwater pumping, powered by more than two crore electric and 75 lakh diesel pumps. Access to groundwater depends on reliable and affordable electricity supply. This is an important issue as it concerns livelihoods of the rural poor and food security...