-PRS Legislative Research The key findings of the report entitled: State of Agriculture in India by Tanvi Deshpande (March, 2017) are as follows: * The agriculture sector employs nearly half of the workforce in the country. However, it contributes to 17.5% of the GDP (at current prices in 2015-16). * Over the past few decades, the manufacturing and services sectors have increasingly contributed to the growth of the economy, while the agriculture sector’s...
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Direct transfer, 2 lakh sale points: Big fertiliser subsidy reform rollout in June -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Under the proposed system, payment of subsidy is to be based on weekly settlement of claims from actual sales data captured on POS machines. Buoyed by its landslide win in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Narendra Modi government has decided to fast-track the implementation of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system for payment of fertiliser subsidy to farmers. From the coming kharif season, beginning June, the Rs...
More »Closed mill robs farmers of sugarcane sweetness
-The New Indian Express BARGARH: Harvesting of sugarcane in Bargarh district has been delayed by over three months, leaving the farmers worried. While sugarcane grown in the last kharif season is yet to be harvested, the target area for the crop in the current rabi season has been increased by almost 300 hectares (ha). Harvesting has been stopped as the State-owned Bargarh Cooperative Sugar Mills that procures the entire sugarcane stock...
More »Tamil Nadu scales down foodgrains target
-The Times of India CHENNAI: Failure of monsoon and farmers' distress have forced the state government to scale down the target for foodgrains production for the next financial year to 100 lakh tonnes, a 32% fall from the initial target set for the current financial year. Announcing this while presenting the budget, finance minister D Jayakumar said a slew of measures was being taken to overcome the water shortage. Considering that...
More »Record foodgrain, oilseed output likely this year
-The Indian Express According to the agriculture ministry’s second advance estimates of crop production for this year, total foodgrain output will surpass the previous all-time-high of 2013-14. India’s production of foodgrains and oilseeds is expected to hit record levels in 2016-17 on the back of a normal southwest monsoon and a decent winter, which would more than offset the impact, if any, of demonetisation. According to the agriculture ministry’s second advance estimates of...
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