In the absence of income or expenditure-based headcount ratio, the growth in the real wages (i.e., nominal wages adjusted against retail inflation) of the manual workers is considered to be a good proxy to assess the trends in poverty. This is because the manual, unskilled/ semi-skilled labourers exist at the bottom of the pyramid or economic hierarchy, and most of them belong to the social categories Scheduled Castes (SCs) and...

-The Hindu Dependence on private sector is on the rise, they say Channai: Farmers supplying milk to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Aavin) have urged the State government to increase procurement prices. Citing the example of another cooperative, Amul, which has recently hiked selling price of milk by ₹2 per litre, M.G. Rajendran of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association said farmers in Gujarat, where Amul is based out of,...

-Down to Earth The government will use its extensive network of women’s self-help groups to encourage the transition. The Andhra Pradesh government announced financial support to more than 70,000 women from scheduled castes (SC) to promote natural farming among marginal farmers. Natural farming excludes the application of chemicals and promotes traditional agricultural practices. It is regarded as particularly useful for smallholder farmers as it reduces dependency on purchased inputs.   A one-time subsidy of...

-Financial Express According to Rao, the ICAR committee went through more than 1,400 scientific journals on various methods of promotion of sustainable agriculture besides interacting with farmers who have claimed to have adopted ZBNF across seven states. Large scale adoption of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)  — farm practices which exclude all synthetic chemical inputs and promote use of on-farm biomass — would result in ‘tremendous reduction’ in production of agricultural crops...

-Livemint.com Early adopters claim higher yields and low cultivation costs. But scientific validation is awaited Government can keep fertilizer subsidies in check. The fertilizer subsidy bill, driven by a spike in natural gas and other raw material prices, is set to touch a staggering ₹1.3 trillion in 2021-22 Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Or so it happened to KV Homendra. At 23, he went for a degree in...