-The Hindu Business Line Loan waivers have made banks wary of them; beneficiaries are farm infra/services firms Every year the Centre announces an increase in the agri credit limit, but not even half of this reaches small farmers. Small farmers typically take small loans — of less than Rs. 2 lakh. RBI data show that in FY17, the share of loans of Rs. 2 lakh or less was just 40 per cent of...

-The Hindu With farm distress becoming a major electoral issue in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Vikas Pathak visits two pockets of rural India, Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and Jodhpur district in Rajasthan, and finds that the political instincts of the rural voter are not necessarily rooted in agriculture. A few farmers sit huddled near a statue of Sardar Patel at Balaguda village in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh pouring out...

-ThePrint.in Not BJP or Congress, farmers are setting their own agenda for 2019 elections. Has the farmers’ movement finally arrived at the centre stage of national politics in India? And, can 2019 be the first Lok Sabha election to be fought mainly on farmers’ issues? I asked myself these questions sitting at the stage of Kisan Mukti March at the Parliament Street last week. Tens of thousands of farmers from all over the...

-The Hindu In line with PM’s vision to double farmers’ income: Minister The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the Agriculture Export Policy, aimed at increasing India’s exports to $60 billion by 2022 from the current $37 billion, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu announced. “We have managed to increase agriculture exports to $37 billion from $30 billion in just one year,” Mr. Prabhu said at a press conference. “With this policy, we aim to increase...

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers in election-bound States have stopped repaying in anticipation of write-offs Hyderabad: The increasing demand for farm-loan waivers and slippages in existing loan repayments by farmers in anticipation of write-offs are giving banks a nightmare. Apart from drawing the attention of policy makers and political pundits, last week’s mega farmers’ rally in the national capital has also created tremors among bankers. “The expectation of agricultural loan waivers next year when...