Although rising food prices remain a critical concern, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is counting on better supply management, improved output of pulses and rice, better access to rural credit and strengthening of existing agricultural schemes to bolster India’s farm output. The rural economy employs about 60% of India’s work force, contributes about 17% of gross domestic product, and is expected to post 5.4% growth over last year, according to advanced estimates...

Increase in offtake under various public distribution schemes. Supply of wheat and rice will have to be doubled if the proposed National Food Security Act for targeted beneficiaries is implemented with the current delivery mechanism, in which leakages are too high, the Economic Survey for 2010-11 has said. “Once we give a legal guarantee to people about the food that they are to receive, if we try to deliver on this promise...

In a bonanza to the farming community, the government on Monday announced loans at interest rate of four per cent -- three per cent less than market rate -- for farmers who pay their dues in time and raised the credit target for farm sector by Rs 1 lakh crore. "The existing interest subvention scheme of providing short-term crop loans at seven per cent interest rate will continue during the 2011-12...

Is the chemical fertilizer-based food production system sustainable? As a result, what happens to the soil and the larger issue of food security? After a raging debate, the government finally decided to hike the chemical fertilizer subsidy, to catch up with spiralling fertilizer prices in the global market. Also, there is talk about bringing urea under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) system and decontrolling its prices. Obviously, the fertilizer industry...

A shift from the traditional rice-wheat cycle and linking farmers directly to the market can end the current stagnation in farm sector, according to the Economic Survey 2010-11 tabled in the Parliament on Friday.The survey stated that capital investment were required not only for farm productivity but also to create adequate infrastructure for transport, storage and distribution of agricultural produce. The stagnation is evident from the fact that whereas overall GDP...