-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...

-The Hindu Low output and land fragmentation are critical issues, says survey Tamil Nadu: The writing on the wall for Tamil Nadu in agriculture is pretty clear, though the State's grain production during 2013-14 was good. The latest Economic Appraisal of the government has shown that Tamil Nadu needs out-of-the-box policies to tackle agriculture production and its impact on food inflation. The State did well in 2013-14 to bounce back from a nightmare drought...

-Down to Earth Sivasankaran's land grabbing spree has threatened millions of livelihoods, says report Indian origin businessman Chinnakannan Sivasankaran has engaged in aggressive land grabbing of more than half a million hectares across Africa, Asia and South America, putting millions of livelihoods at risk. This was revealed in a detailed report released by Barcelona-based non-profit GRAIN on Tuesday. The report says Sivasankaran diverted 0.56 million hectares of food-producing land to production of palm...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The United States and Pakistan have questioned several of India's farm trade policies, including its land holding laws and the subsidy mechanism at the World Trade Organization, which is the latest assault being faced by the country after it raised the red flag over domestic support to farmers in Bali. Since the Bali ministerial meeting last December, WTO members have repeatedly put the lens on India's...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH/FAZILKA: What was a laughing stock when started 12 years ago is today all set to become a part of the policy the United Nations plan to make for the world. A business model -- Library Model and Radio Taxi Model -- for enabling small and marginal farmers to hire equipment for farm operations at affordable prices was recently showcased in an event of UN in Indonesia...