-Hindkisan.com Alarmingly, despite wages paid under MGNREGA being much lower than the standard minimum wage in most states, increasing number of people from rural households are applying for jobs under the employment scheme. This trend is an indicator of the mounting distress in the rural economy which is aggravated by paucity of jobs. Mocking the economic condition of the distressed rural working community, the Union Government has decided to uphold the low...

-The Indian Express NEW DELHI: The government’s ambitious minimum support price (MSP) scheme to improve farmers’ income has hit a roadblock as Niti Aayog missed the deadline to suggest a viable procurement model. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his Budget speech the government would ensure agriculture produce is procured at the revised MSP, which will be 1.5 times the production cost. The Centre had entrusted the think tank with...

-The Hindu Business Line Ryot body comes up with mobile alert to track, compare prices New Delhi: If you are a farmer, that last notification on your phone could be an alert from the Jai Kisan Andolan. And no, it does not have to do with another Maharashtra-style agitation against the government. It is the JKA informing you of the latest price of your commodity in the country’s premier agricultural markets. MSPAlert, which...

-The Hindu Business Line Kota Neelima digs into farmer suicide cases to chronicle lives often labelled as collateral damage In last November, when All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organisation of around 190 farmer groups from across the country, organised a Kisan Mukti Sansad in Delhi, there was one event that moved almost everyone of thousands present there. About two dozens children of those farmers who had committed suicide in...

-ThePrint.in Renowned agricultural economist Sardara Singh Johl takes on father of green revolution M.S. Swaminathan’s idea of raising MSP to 1.5 times the production costs. New Delhi: Renowned agricultural economist Sardara Singh Johl agrees with M.S. Swaminathan, the man credited as the father of the ‘green revolution’, on the futility of loan waivers to ease farm distress. But he disagrees with a much-touted recommendation of the committee on tackling the farm crisis Swaminathan...