-IANS RAIPUR: There's a deathly silence in many villages across Chhattisgarh these days. The houses are locked as entire families have left for greener pastures for want of work, despite Central government's rural job scheme and availability of rice at Rs1 per kg. "We (55 labourers and 15 children) are leaving for Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh) where we will make bricks. The payment is Rs 400 for 1,000 bricks. Two labourers...
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NREGA: Each household got only 39 job days last year -Ruhi Tewari
-The Indian Express The gaps in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) continue to widen despite the scheme being in its tenth year. The last year (2014-15) has turned out to be worst year of the scheme since its inception in terms of the average number of days of employment provided to each household. The MGNREGA, introduced in February 2006 by the UPA government, promises 100 days...
More »Protecting the small farmer -Ananth Gudipati
-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...
More »Unseasonal rains deepen distress and debt on farms -Sayantan Bera and Nikita Mehta
-Livemint.com The untimely rain is set to further affect stressed rural income because of a slump in commodity prices Mathura/New Delhi: Last Monday, towards the evening, Sahab Singh, a 58-year-old farmer, walked up to his small patch of land in Mathura district of western Uttar Pradesh. Frequent spells of untimely rain over the past month had him worried. Joined by his two sons, Singh picked up two stalks of wheat that had...
More »India’s silent spring -Ashwini K Swain & Glada Lahn
-The Hindu Business Line Overuse of groundwater, fertiliser and energy threatens the future of agriculture. A coherent policy response is called for India's agricultural sector is far more important to the country than its falling share in the GDP suggests. About two-thirds of India's population depends on agriculture for livelihood. Bucking global trends, the agricultural population in India rose by 50 per cent between 1980 and 2011. And in spite of sustained...
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