-Business Standard Patna/Nalanda: Baldev Prasad Mandal, a native of Painathi panchayat in Bihar's Patna district, sold 250 quintals of rice to the village-based primary agriculture credit societies (PACS), an agency responsible for procuring foodgrain directly from farmers at the rate of Rs 1,660 a quintal in March this year. Even as the new kharif season is about to begin, Mandal is one of the many farmers in the state who are...

-The Financial Express It is clear from global experience that crop insurance is not economically viable and, in a country like India which is dominated by small landholders, it does not even seem to be feasible The demand for crop insurance stems from two ‘risky’ SITuations that often erode farmers’ income and make them vulnerable to economic distress. These include unpredictable weather and volatile prices. Although vulnerability of Indian agriculture on weather-related...

Is the Government stepping back from its responsibility under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by giving technical reasons? Civil society organizations, which struggled to enact the Right to Food legislation, doubt that this may be the case. It has been alleged recently by several civil society activists that the Government is rolling back the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), which is meant for food security of the extremely poor households,...

-The Hindu   Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA SITe....

-TheNewsMinute.com Telengana: Everyday a large number of homeless, poor people who cannot afford a decent meal, line up in neat rows under the Dabeerpura bridge in Hyderabad. Every man, woman and child wait for their turn to pick up a plate, washes it and SITs down in formations. Many in the line have not eaten for days, but they still wait their turn. Without a hassle, rice is served on each...