-The Indian Express Kutch has also registered record sowing of cumin seeds in 62,100 hectares out of the total 1.46 lakh hectare sown this Rabi season. Rajkot: In a record in recent years, farmers of Gujarat have sown Rabi crops in almost 40 lakh hectares, after receiving better-than-average monsoon rainfall in 2019. Moreover, farmers have sown cumin seeds in around five lakh hectare, the highest in the past six years, with Devbhumi...
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The flawed spin to India's cotton story -Imran Siddiqi
-The Hindu The country’s hybrid seed model for cotton favours seed companies over farmers Genetically Modified (GM) pest resistant Bt cotton hybrids have captured the Indian market since their introduction in 2002. These now cover over 95% of the area under cotton, with the seeds produced entirely by the private sector. India’s cotton production in 2019 is projected as the highest ever: 354 lakh bales. Bt cotton’s role in increasing India’s cotton...
More »Move to cash transfers will lead to savings, put agriculture on sustainable growth path -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express All such investments will go a long way to augment farmers’ incomes in a sustainable manner. Else, I am afraid, much of the talk in the Union budget for agri-reforms will remain mere rhetoric. Although the Union budget is basically an accounting exercise of revenues and expenditures for the coming year, economy-watchers anxiously wait for the finance minister to announce major economic reforms. In that sense, the budget of...
More »In the farmer's name -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express Farmer unions need to expand the scope of their advocacy. Every day, a gold miner in Russia leaves a mine with a wheelbarrow full of sand. Every day, the guard thoroughly checks the sand. On his retirement day, the guard asks the worker, “I know you have been stealing something, but can’t figure out what it is”. The worker whispers back, “I wasn’t hiding anything in the sand,...
More »For Haryana's farmers, MSP is only an illusion -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line Commission agents, who procure paddy, pay less than the MSP. There is no moisture testing or correct weighment. Is there a nexus all round? It is widely perceived that MSP operations in Haryana are quite effective and farmers there are a happy lot. But the reality is quite different. In the last paddy season, many farmers in Karnal’s Taraori, the largest grain mandi in Haryana, got only Rs.1,750/quintal...
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