-The Hindu Business Line The Government has several short and long-term strategies to achieve self-sufficiency Who can deny that pulses are at the core of the average Indian diet? Therefore, the NDA government’s multi-pronged short-term and long-term strategies to meet the growing consumption of pulses in the country — from importing to increasing production through new technologies, and making cultivation attractive to farmers — is to be welcomed. In fact, pulses play...

-The Indian Express The Modi government should spell out clearly what it wants to double by 2022 — nominal or real incomes. The National Bank for Agriculture and rural Development’s (NABARD) 34th foundation day celebrations on July 12 saw a day-long deliberation on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022”. This was an event at Vigyan Bhavan in the national capital, where the ministries of agriculture and finance...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government is infusing fresh urgency into implementation of the Swachh Bharat rural scheme after a detailed review by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month triggered concerns that at its current pace the flagship cleanliness programme could miss its deadline of 2019. Barely 11 per cent of India's 6.38 lakh villages have turned open defecation free so far, with only 17 of the 683 districts declared ODF...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: In chasing higher and higher GDP growth rates, India tends to gloss over two vital facts. One, farm growth cuts poverty twice as fast as industrial growth. Two, a 1% rise in agricultural output raises industrial production by 0.5% and national income by 0.7%, according to one calculation. In other words, the country’s fortunes are structurally tied to its farmers. Two-thirds of Indians rely on a farm-based income....

-Livemint.com Tiliya, one of many villages in Bundelkhand region, has been emptied of its young people as they have migrated to the cities to find work, usually menial jobs Jhansi/ New Delhi: Adjacent to the Pahuj river, surrounded by small rocky hills in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh lies Tiliya, a village of 42 households. Most villagers are farmers but, strangely, almost all the farmers are elderly. They put it down to ‘Palaayaan’...