-Down to Earth To double farmers’ income reduce the number of farmers, suggest policy makers Among senior officials in the Union government and members of the Niti Aayog, conversations now start and end with one subject: “doubling farmers’ income by 2022”. Clearly, the obsession with open defecation-free India is over as, unofficially, India has achieved the target before the October 2019 deadline. But the new target to double farmers’ income by 2022 has...
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Zero clarity
-The Hindu Business Line ‘Zero-budget natural Farming’ sounds fine in principle, but is vague on many specifics By announcing a push to zero-budget natural Farming (ZBNF) in the Budget, the Centre seemed to have reiterated its policy support for non-chemical-based Farming methods. However, ZBNF has kicked up something of a stir, not least because of the positions taken by the individual associated with it, Subash Palekar. Palekar has gone to great lengths...
More »A reality check indicates that MSP set for 2019-20's kharif crops is not 1.5 times the 'C2' cost of production
A recent press release by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) shows that the declared minimum support price (MSP) for most kharif crops to be marketed in 2019-20 is at least 50 percent above the cost of production. The official information related to the newly declared MSP, which came two days ahead of the Union Budget presentation, gives the impression that the newly re-elected NDA government has kept its promise...
More »What is zero budget natural Farming? -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu * Will this form of chemical-free agriculture increase farmers’ incomes? Where are the pitfalls? The story so far: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thrust zero budget Farming into the spotlight in the first Budget speech of the 17th Lok Sabha earlier this month, calling for a “back to the basics” approach. She said, “We need to replicate this innovative model through which in a few States, farmers are already being trained...
More »World Bank study on PMGSY: 'Rural roads scheme triggered shift from farm to non-farm employment'
--The Indian Express PMGSY was rolled out in 2000 to provide access to all-weather roads in 1.78 lakh rural habitations across the country. New Delhi: A recent independent World Bank assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) rural roads programme meant to establish ‘farm to market connectivity’ shows that the PMGSY roads, in fact, “triggered a shift from farm to non-farm employment” in the habitations studied between 2009 and...
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