-Business Standard In November, the government decides to transfer Rs 4.5 a quintal production incentive to bank accounts of Sugarcane farmers Two months ago, the Centre after much deliberation decided to transfer Rs 4.50 a quintal directly into the bank accounts of Sugarcane growers. The government called this a production incentive, but it is seen by many as an attempt to kill several birds with one stone. An incentive directly transferred into the...

-The Asian Age It’s a huge story. And it’s not getting the kind of media attention it deserves. It’s a story about India’s farmers. It’s a story about the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country in the wake of two successive years of drought. If one looks only at the figures of growth of gross domestic product which tend to make headlines in financial publications, there’s no story for agriculture comprises...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Even as the state reels under a shortage of pulses, estimates for the drought-hit kharif season which just ended show that the crisis could worsen. They show a steep 52% drop in the production of kharif pulses and a 30% fall in the production of kharif cereals for 2015-16 compared to a normal year. The overall production of kharif foodgrains is set to decline by an...

-Business Standard Unless irrigation expands, agriculture will not be drought-proof Even as India celebrates the golden jubilee of the Green Revolution, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has come out with data indicating that nearly 70 per cent of farmers subsist on economically unviable farm holdings of less than a hectare in size. Over one-fifth of farm households report salaried employment, and not farming, as the prime source of their income. Around...

-The Indian Express Uttar Pradesh farmers have taken well to direct benefit transfers, though there are doubts if it can be extended to fertilisers. Akhilesh Yadav’s government in Uttar Pradesh is turning out to be a pacesetter in implementation of direct benefit transfers (DBT) to farmers. Farmers in UP got Rs 28.60 per quintal from the state government for the Sugarcane they supplied to mills during the 2014-15 crushing season. The payments, totalling...