-VillageSquare.in Income support to smallholder farmers is similar to palliative measures like Minimum Support Prices or loan waivers that do not address the problem of an unsustainable population living on a fixed resource base The government in the budget for this year has announced an allocation of Rs 75,000 crore for direct income transfer of Rs 6,000 annually for every farmer who owns less than 2 hectares of land. This amount...
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Income transfers are hottest trend in agricultural policy. But how do states identify beneficiaries? -Mridula Chari
-Scroll.in In Telangana, large landholders are benefiting disproportionately from the scheme. In Odisha, families of ministers were on initial beneficiary lists. Early on January 25, Saroj Kumar Sahu and Manu Patel, two farmers from a western Odisha village, boarded a bus with around 10 others from their village to travel across the state to Puri. They were among thousands of farmers from the state’s 147 Assembly constituencies who were chosen to attend...
More »Rajasthan alleges Centre's discriminatory attitude towards farmers
-The Hindu Jaipur: The Congress government in Rajasthan has accused the Centre of adopting a “discriminatory attitude” towards the State’s farmers, reflected in the lower targets set for procurement of mustard and gram on Minimum Support Prices in comparison with the national average. A ceiling of 25-quintal purchase on a day has been set for the farmers. State Cooperative Minister Udai Lal Anjana has taken up the matter with Union Agriculture Minister Radha...
More »Tackling the agrarian crisis, differently -V Kumaraswamy
-The Hindu Business Line The focus must shift away from sops, to raising farmers’ income by promoting better seeds and rejuvenating soil health Agrarian crisis is staring on our face and, as usual, a flood of familiar suggestions have resurfaced. The political responses have been on expected lines. Fixing MSPs (Minimum Support Prices) at 50 per cent over costs is as disastrous as it can get. There is no inherent incentive in cutting...
More »India's MSP programme for pulses under WTO lens -Amiti Sen
-The Hindu Business Line Canada, US serve counter-notification to India India’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) programme for pulses has come under greater scrutiny at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the US, Canada and Australia serving it a formal counter-notification, alleging that the subsidy involved was much higher than the permitted cap. The EU, New Zealand, Ukraine and Paraguay also joined the chorus against the country. Defending itself at the agriculture committee meeting...
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