-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...

-The Hindu The ‘batta’ system of rolling financing has shrunk as money cannot be withdrawn from banks, and bearer cheques pile up Varanasi: For the already distressed weavers and poorly paid labourers in the famous Banarasi sari industry, demonetisation has come as a crippling blow. Withdrawal limits of Rs. 50,000 on current accounts (around a 10th of the actual requirement in the trade) and falling business post November 8 have constrained traders from...

-Economic and Political Weekly P K Joshi (p.joshi@cgiar.org), Avinash Kishore (a.kishore@cgiar.org) and Devesh Roy (d.roy@cgiar.org) are with the International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. While outlining strategies to increase availability of pulses at affordable prices, it is argued that increasing domestic production of pulses is the only option. Access to one or two protective irrigation sources during the growing season can lead to sizeable increases in pulse production. The har khet...

-The Economic Times PUNE: Pulses traders have demanded lifting of the decade-old ban on export of the commodity as prices of all varieties, except chana, have fallen below the minimum support price (MSP). They have cautioned that if prices continue to remain subdued, farmers might shift to other crops. “The government should allow export of pulses to support prices,“ said Bimal Kothari, vice-president of Indian Pulses and Grains Association. India had banned export...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A nationwide network of farmers today dubbed the demonetisation exercise "the most hurtful scheme since independence" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledges for the agriculture sector announced on December 31 were "a rehash of what already exists". The network of farmers' associations and representatives from across the country said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister that the demonetisation move had shown a "dismaying disregard"...