-Hindustan Times The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or coarse cereal production, mostly grown by small and poor farmers New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to include millets in the public distribution system for which it is procuring these grains at federally fixed minimum support prices, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or...

-Business Standard State set to grab pole position in 3rd edition of rankings, which are likely to be out early April, Delhi expected to score low The third edition of the government's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking for states, modeled on the international one conducted by the World Bank, may see West Bengal jumping 15 places to top the list along with Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Data collected till Wednesday on an...

-The Hindu Farming must be treated as a market-based enterprise and made viable on its own terms The week-long farmers’ march which reached Mumbai earlier this month, on the anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March of 1930, was unprecedented in many ways. It was mostly silent and disciplined, mostly leaderless, non-disruptive and non-violent, and well organised. It received the sympathy of middle class city dwellers, food and water from bystanders, free medical services...

-The Indian Express The demand is a call for upholding local practices of belonging On March 12, about 50,000 farmers reached Mumbai, walking 165 km in the hope that their elected representatives would listen when they spoke. A majority of these farmers were Adivasis and one of their demands was the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and through it, their land rights. The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the...

-Down to Earth Most of the over 200 farmers Down To Earth talked to in 6 villages of Hoshangabad and Sehore districts said they would not register for the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojna for the rabi season When Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY) in August 2017 to compensate farmers for the losses they would suffer by selling their crops below the minimum support price (MSP)...