-The Pioneer Centre must come up with a national policy The Supreme Court’s intervention for the lack of a national policy to help calamity-hit farmers is welcome. Regardless of what we have at the moment for them, the country's bread-earners must be offered all possible support to strengthen the economy. While taking up a number of public interest litigations, the apex court found that the Government had no policy to tackle the...
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Towards less-cash agriculture: Well before demonetisation, low credit-driven model came up in Dewas -Vivian Fernandes
-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...
More »PM Fasal Bima Yojana not reaching farmers who really need it -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line Non-loanee farmers availing insurance may be far fewer than data claim Last January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new crop insurance scheme with the aim of bringing 50 per cent of the country’s farmers under insurance cover in three years. Data shows that in kharif 2016 — the first season after the scheme’s launch — crop insurance coverage had risen. However, despite the Centre’s claims, this growth is...
More »Is government manipulating agriculture data? -Jitendra
-Down to Earth Government’s policy decisions and ground reports are in conflict with official data on sowing, production and agriculture insurance The Centre’s claim of 94 million metric tonnes (MT) (2015-16) of wheat production, good sowing acreage and success of agriculture insurance scheme is not in sync with reality as government’s own data do not match agriculture ministry’s claims. The data related to increased acreage, bumper production and success of agriculture...
More »Official data exposes Centre's inflated claims on success of agriculture insurance scheme -Jitendra
-Down to Earth The number of non-loanee farmers opting for insurance reached 9.7 million in kharif season of 2016 as against 9.8 million in the same period in 2015 On December 7, the Union Ministry of Agriculture press release claimed that that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has made impressive progress in 2016. According to the press release, “There has been a quantum jump of more than six times...
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