-VillageSquare.in People living in villages, who are migrating in large numbers to urban spaces in search of livelihoods, could be victims of our economic development or perhaps the dismal income growth of farm households is semi-deliberate to keep labor costs low Till about 1990 since Independence, our country followed what may be broadly termed an import-substitution strategy for economic growth. This meant high import duties and rigid non-tariff barriers on imports and...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government should honour its MSP promise and lift trade curbs The Government move to impose an import duty of 10 per cent on wheat and tur is a timely one. With a bumper harvest likely in wheat this year, market prices have dropped below MSP. Apart from estimates of higher arrivals in mandis, higher imports in recent months too have hit prices. In January alone, 1.13 million...

-The Hindu Business Line Kutch presents an example of robust desert horticulture Over the past decade, the total horticultural land under cultivation of fruits such as pomegranate, mango and date palm has doubled in Kutch and its fruit production has trebled. And why is this a surprise? Because this semi-arid region in Kutch has, through 10 years of toil, transformed the landscape and set an innovative example in desert horticulture. Adversity, they say, can...

-The Indian Express PM Modi government’s mandatory coating policy brings down sale of fertilisers, despite record farm production Here’s an apparent contradiction: The Narendra Modi government claims that India’s foodgrain output will hit a record 271.98 million tonnes (mt) in 2016-17 — up from last year’s 251.57 mt — with production of rice, wheat, maize, pulses and even oilseeds estimated at all-time highs. Yet, fertiliser sales — considered a proxy for farm sector...

-PTI New Delhi: The government is considering imposing import duty on wheat in order to protect farmers amid projections of a record output this year, Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K. Pattanayak said today. On December 8, the government had reduced customs duty on wheat to zero from 10 per cent to boost domestic availability and check retail prices. Now that the country is all set to harvest a record production of 96.64 million tonnes...