-NITI Aayog Working Paper, ISBN: 978-81-953811-7-3 Abstract -  The importance of agriculture in an economy usually declines as it climbs the development ladder. Raising agriculture productivity has been known to be an important precursor. Labour productivity in agriculture can either be increased by higher land productivity or higher land availability per farmer and mechanisation. In India, however, the dramatic increase in land productivity through industrial farming has caused severe environmental damage and...

-Down to Earth The Punjab government April 12 appealed to the central government to allow relaxation in the norms of shrivelled grains without any value cut, since the farmer had already been penalised on account of lower yield The Punjab government said April 13, 2022 that the Centre has agreed to revise its wheat procurement norms for shrivelled grains, a day after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann urged it do to so. Record-breaking...

-Business Standard Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, writes T N Ninan Crises in the Indian economy used to be the “normal”. In the 12 years from 1962 to 1974, India fought three wars, suffered four droughts that produced famine in places like Bihar, and lived through the first oil shock, which saw a quadrupling of crude oil prices. The...

-GaonConnection.com Two years into the pandemic and the hunger and food insecurity crisis continues. A survey reported decline in nutritional quality and quantity of food despite some of the government schemes on food grains having performed well. Details here. About eight in 10 surveyed Indian households — 79 per cent — have reported some form of food insecurity during the pandemic and an alarmingly high 25 per cent reported severe food insecurity....

-Press release by the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat dated February 23, 2022 * 66 percent respondents said that their income has decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period * 80 percent reported some form of food insecurity, 25 percent reported severe food insecurity * 41 percent said that nutritional quality of their diet deteriorated compared to the pre-pandemic period * 67 percent could not afford cooking gas in the month preceding the survey. * 45...