-The Indian Express Under the proposed system, payment of subsidy is to be based on weekly settlement of claims from actual sales data captured on POS machines. Buoyed by its landslide win in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Narendra Modi government has decided to fast-track the implementation of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system for payment of fertiliser subsidy to farmers. From the coming kharif season, beginning June, the Rs...

-IANS Shimla: Himachal Pradesh, whose economy largely banks on agriculture and horticulture, aims to develop bio villages by promoting organic farming. The state is also eyeing investment in cold chains. An additional 2,000 hectares will be brought under organic farming and there are plans to develop 200 bio-villages in the next fiscal, a government spokesperson told IANS. He said farmers in the bio-villages would use only bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides and discourage...

-The Hindu Rise in cancer cases in Punjab can be attributed to indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals after the Green Revolution Bathinda: Lying on a bench at the Bathinda railway station, sexagenarian Gurjant Singh waits to board the Abohar-Jodhpur passenger train. He, however, is not the only one waiting. As the train chugs into the platform, people rush to claim their seats. Those who are unsuccessful settle down on the floor. Soon, the...

-The Financial Express Despite the substantial increase in agricultural credit in the past few years, a few states such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab and (pre-division) Andhra Pradesh continue to corner a large part of it, while most poor farmers in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar are still deprived of credit for purchase of basic farming inputs. This scenario has undermined the efficacy of the stepped-up farm credit in boosting agricultural productivity. And...

-TheWire.in Farmer suicides and hunger deaths plague flagship village of SP government. “Have you heard of kangaali mein aata geela? That is our situation,”says Sugha Singh as he sits outside Balwan Singh’s house along with other village men under the tree on a warm February afternoon. He is referring to an old Hindi idiom which means getting into more hardships one after another. They are mourning the death of Munni Devi, 78,...