-Frontline The inability to resolve pressing problems with respect to the production, distribution and availability of food is one of the important failures of the entire economic reform process. IN the fateful month of July 1991, when the devaluation of the Indian rupee presaged the introduction of a whole series of liberalising economic reforms, agriculture was very far from the minds of most policymakers and commentators. The immediate focus was on...

-Livemint.com Govt’s plan to cover 80% farmers falling apart as banks have disbursed loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the kharif season Mumbai: Maharashtra government’s plan to cover 80% of the state’s 13.7 million farmers under institutionalised crop credit in 2016-17 seems to be falling apart. By 30 June, a large network of public, private and district co-operative banks had disbursed crop loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the...

-The Hindu Cooperative societies will get the amount in a phased manner Chennai: Pursuant to the announcement made by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on the waiver of agricultural loans availed by small and micro farmers from cooperative banks, the State government has issued specific guidelines to be followed while implementing the waiver. According to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), the scheme would be applicable to entire outstanding principal, interest, penal interest and all...

-HuffingtonPost.com In Bundelkhand, people struggle for every drop of water they can find. TIKAMGARH DISTRICT: For years, Lakshman Pal, 28, planted wheat and tended to his small field here. Each season, he hoped for rain. He looked up at the sky and waited for the showers that normally came. But for the past two years, they’ve hardly come at all. His crops eventually withered and died, crumbling to dust. In early May, Pal...

-The New Indian Express If a government survey report is to be believed, an agricultural household harvests a debt of Rs 3,000 every month, forget about making money to sustain itself. The agricultural household 70th round survey of National Sample Survey Office conducted during July 2012 and June 2013 has revealed that the total income of an agricultural household per month was just Rs 6,426. On the other hand, the total...