-Firstpost.com Ludhiana: Free meals, payment in advance, free liquor to ease aching limbs after a hard day’s work. Migrant labour in Punjab, mainly from Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, the mainstay of the state’s agriculture sector, has never had it so good. The problem, however, is the decreasing availability of this labour. Ask Baljinder Singh, a farmer with a 10-acre holding in Dakha village. Come sowing season in mid-June, Baljinder...
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Why organic farming is yet to bear fruit -T Ramakrishnan
-The Hindu Despite concerted efforts to promote this alternative system of food production, a majority of agriculturists are yet to jump on the organic bandwagon, as factors such as costs, land size and viability remain sticking points Chennai: Nearly 25 years ago, an event held at the American Center Auditorium in Chennai on the topic of the Green Revolution witnessed a lively debate on the merits and demerits of organic farming and...
More »Drowning in sweetness -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express The sugar industry faces a crisis of plenty. Unless bold steps are taken quickly, it can prove costly to the Modi government. The sugar sector is heading for a major crisis of plenty. India will begin the sugar season (October to September) with a sugar stock of about 10 million metric tonnes (MMT). The industry’s production estimate for 2018-19 is 35.5 MMT, up from 32.3 MMT in 2017-18, against...
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 »P Sainath, founder editor of People's Archive of Rural India (PARI), interviewed by Bhasha Singh
-National Herald Talking about farmers’ issues, P Sainath said, “It is not just an agrarian crisis, it is now a national crisis. The Modi govt has been engaged in fooling the nation. They are telling lies shamelessly” The founder editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the former Rural Affairs editor of The Hindu and author of the much acclaimed book ‘Everybody loves a Good Drought’, P Sainath, has recorded rural...
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