-Newsclick.in Answers to all the questions you are likely to have about the Minimum Support Price and the controversy surrounding it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hope that his promise to repeal the three new farm laws will have the protesting farmers to promptly fold their tents and leave Delhi has been belied. The farmer unions have instead declared that they are not going to call off their one-year stir until the Union...

-Down to Earth A survey in Haryana last year found that 45 per cent of 218 organic farmers got yields for wheat better than the state official average yield  The relative merit of organic farming is recognised. Still, it is usually recommended only for areas of low chemical usage and not for intensively farmed areas such as those where the Green Revolution took place in the 1960s like Punjab, Haryana and western...

One is almost certain to hear this from an economist that if something is available at free of cost or at a subsidised rate thanks to government intervention, then people tend to overuse or overconsume such goods/ commodities. So, the best solution is to create a market for such 'almost freely available' or 'highly subsidised' goods or commodities. Once people start paying to use or consume such goods/ commodities, they...

-ThePrint.in Mihir Shah, who headed the panel that drafted National Water Policy, says crop diversification, without endangering national food security, is important for resolving water crisis. New Delhi: The focus of public procurement on predominantly wheat and rice dates back to the early years of the Green Revolution, and this is what enabled India to build a large buffer stock of grain. However, there is no doubt that this overwhelming focus on just...

-Down to Earth Lack of planning, introduction of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and weed killers are responsible for decline in pulses’ cultivation Pulses have an important place in our culture. But with imports increasing every day, they are getting too expensive for the poor. As a result, malnutrition is increasing. It is not that farmers do not grow pulses here due to lack of seeds and knowledge, but there is a lack...