-The Indian Express Turnaround in farm prices is the only good news in today’s overall dismal economic environment. The Narendra Modi government’s first term (June 2014 to May 2019) was marked by benign consumer food price inflation. At a mere 3.3% year-on-year, it averaged below even the 4.3% for overall retail inflation. Politically, the ruling party benefited, given that there are far more consumers of milk in India than dairy farmers. The...
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In Maharashtra, linking land records to PM Fasal Bima saves time, plugs leaks -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express Does away with need for village revenue officer’s signature; guards against crop insurance fraud. Pune: Early in December, when Bhagwan Ingole, a farmer from Malegaon in Ardhrapur taluka of Nanded went to the Citizen Facilitation Centre in his village to insure his one acre of rabi chana (bengal gram) crop, he was in for a surprise. During the previous seasons, the operator of this one-stop shop catering to most...
More »Acute shortage of labour to extend Maharashtra's sugar season -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express The start of the sugarcane season in Maharashtra is marked by the seasonal migration of around 7-8 lakh labourers from Marathwada and North Maharashtra to the mills in various parts of the state. Pune: Maharashtra’s sugarcane crushing is all set to extend by at least a fortnight as mills complain of acute shortage of harvesting labourers. Mills say that at present around 15-20 per cent less labourers have turned...
More »Maharashtra: Drought and low prices worry gram growers in Marathwada -Partha Sarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express The state has reported 13.13 lakh hectare of chana acreage as compared to 19.77 lakh hectare last year. The acreage had come down this year due to moisture stress from the drought. Pune: Gram growers in the drought-hit district of Marathwada are facing reduced yield and low prices. Low demand and offloading stock by government agencies have dimmed the prices of good realisation for farmers this year. Farmers in...
More »MSP intervention: A different surplus -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The unprecedented procurement of pulses and oilseeds in the last couple of years has created problems — and opportunities. If there’s one area in agriculture where the Narendra Modi government has probably broken fresh ground, it is in the procurement of pulses and oilseeds. During the 2016-17 and 2017-18 agricultural years (July-June), the Central agencies — National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed), Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC)...
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