-The Economic Times NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: The government's spending in the budget aimed at bolstering rural development and providing higher income for farmers has not increased significantly and it may take at least two quarters to drive growth in the hinterland, consumer goods companies said. More than a third of daily-use branded products are sold in the rural areas, home to about 800 million people, whose purchasing behaviour depends on farm...
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Budget 2018 and Agriculture: MSP promise fails to cut ice with farmers -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express For farmers like Bhawane, it’s not the promised MSPs, but the prices for the chana and tur/arhar (pigeon-pea) they would be selling in the next fortnight or so that’s the real concern. Latur: Dhananjay Bhawane has little hope of the standing chana (chickpea) crop on eight out of his 10-acre field fetching anywhere near the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 4,400 per quintal, when it is...
More »Is the government marketing millets right? -Ranjit K Sahu, Ravi Shankar Behera, Bidyut Mohanty & Sibabrata Choudhury
-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...
More »Jaitley's farm-inclined Budget promises new agricultural schemes -- but not the funds for them -Mridula Chari
-Scroll.in The agriculture budget grew more than the actual budget in 2018-19. Some of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s promises to the agriculture sector in his Budget speech may be a little difficult to keep. Jaitley on Thursday announced two funds together valued at Rs 10,000 crore to develop infrastructure for the fisheries and animal husbandry sectors. But his Budget has allotted only Rs 10 crore to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development...
More »Where's the money, Mr Jaitley? -Jayati Ghosh
-The Indian Express There are grand promises. But the actual increases in budgetary outlays are shockingly low. This government is especially good at optics, at managing public perceptions to persuade people that it is working for them, rather than doing so. So it is no surprise that Arun Jaitley’s pre-election budget speech went on about how much his government cares for the people, the poor, for farmers, for women, for people...
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