-The Hindu Business Line Varied production costs, low-grade produce, limited surplus are key factors Farmers across many States, including Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, are up in arms demanding implementation of the National Commission on Farmers report, which suggested fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for crops 50 per cent above the cost of production. But the MSP of many crops already has a built-in profit margin of 40-50 per cent. So, what is...

-The Hindu Our education system has failed to integrate the rural into the larger political community, the nation Rural Mandsaur, where five persons were killed during a demonstration recently, is a prosperous region of western Madhya Pradesh. More than a decade ago, I had the opportunity of spending two days with the children of a private residential school in Mandsaur. At that time, it was the only English-medium residential school. Its vast and...

-VillageSquare.in The problem of male cattle in India, the world’s largest milk-producing country, remains in limbo even as farmers grapple with latest government regulations that severely restrict cattle trade and culling Alpesh Patel, a small farmer in Mogari village of Anand district in Gujarat, owns three crossbreed female cattle and earns supplemental income by selling milk to the nearest dairy co-operative. He strives to keep his herd efficient for milk production by...

-VillageSquare.in Farmer producer companies have started to play an important role in procurement from smallholders, which guards against price crashes that has been plaguing marginalized farmers across the country despite record harvests The agricultural seasons of 2016-17 (Kharif and Rabi) have not been favorable for farmers across the country. In spite of the near-normal monsoon rainfall in India in 2016 coupled with record farm production, wholesale and retail prices for agricultural commodities...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: Notwithstanding the consecutive years of drought over the past three years, Karnataka farmers earned 38% in 2015-16 from sale of agri-commodities through the e-trading interface Unified Market Platform (UMP), according to a Niti Aayog report. The income is expected to double in 2016-17 with many more markets coming under UMP, said a senior agriculture marketing official. UMP, an initiative of the Rashtriya e-Market Services Ltd (ReMS), is...