-Tehelka Agrarian policies are proving to be an albatross around the neck of ordinary farmers Amon Singh Kevat, 70, a small farmer in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, spent three long days in April waiting for his harvest to be picked up from an open plot that served as a mandi (procurement centre for agricultural produce). In need of money for a marriage in the family, Kevat didn’t even go home for meals. But...
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From plate to plough: A Baisakhi gift for the farmer -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express Unseasonal rains are breaking the back of Indian farmers. The prime minister has taken the first step by deciding to raise the existing norms of compensation by a hefty 50 per cent - from the existing Rs 9,000 per hectare for irrigated crop, Rs 4,500 per ha for unirrigated crop and Rs 12,000 per ha for perennial crop. Further, the compensation will be given to all those who...
More »The bitter tale of UP’s sugar industry -Mohammad Ali
-The Hindu Meerut (Uttar Pradesh): Harpal, a farmer in Amroha district, used his countrymade rifle to kill himself in the first week of February. The 52-year-old farmer's son Satpal said his father was worried about not being able to return the Rs. 3.27 lakh he had borrowed from local moneylenders two years ago to buy a tractor. "Sugar mills take sometimes two years to pay the full money for the sugarcane crop. We...
More »Farming on machines
-The Financial Express Besides better yield, mechanisation leads to a rise in labour employment India is known as the land of agriculture, with a holding of nearly 157 million hectares of cultivable land, making our country the second-largest agricultural landholder in the world. With over 58% of the country's population depending on agriculture for earning livelihood, it is also the biggest employment avenue in the country. The Indian Green Revolution is regarded as...
More »Nothing to plough back -Devinder Sharma
-DNA The aim is to drive farmers out of agriculture and turn food production into industrial enterprise Some years ago, former President APJ Abdul Kalam was addressing students at an annual event organised by K Govindacharya's Bhartiya Swabhiman Andolan at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He exhorted students to work hard, educate themselves to become doctors, engineers, civil servants, scientists, economists and entrepreneurs. After he had ended his talk, a young student got...
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