-The Indian Express Development professionals and policymakers have tried many a scheme to address these issues. One idea that has found resonance in recent times is Farmer Producer Organisations or FPOs. It is well-known that Indian farming is predominantly subsistence-oriented. Over 86% of our farmers operate individual holdings below two hectares, while cultivating 47% of the country’s total cultivated area. The production and productivity of these farms are generally low, and...

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers are wrongly blamed for high power consumption. They need incentives for growing appropriate crops Agitations and loan waivers have brought the economics of agriculture in focus. Much of the discussion is about minimum support price, farmers’ net incomes and debt repayment capacities. However, the inputs side of the issue, especially the role and sustainability of subsidised inputs, also need equal attention if agriculture distress is to be...

-The Indian Express Subsidy for crop insurance is preferable to fertiliser, power or farm credit. But Centre should bear the full cost for the scheme. A well-conceived and pro-farmer crop insurance scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — is faced with the prospect of going the fertiliser subsidy way. Just as in the latter’s case, the benefits from subsidy on crop premiums, too, seems to be going primarily...

-The Tribune Pocket more than Rs 8,000 cr in two years; Rs 11 cr a day on average Chandigarh: Rs 11 crore in a day! That was the average of profit of the private insurance Companies from Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in the past two financial years. There were 18 Companies that got contracts under the crop insurance scheme. Out of them just five are in public and 13 in the private...

-Livemint.com Delayed assessment of loss and settlement of claims by insurance Companies may have led to farmers losing faith in Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, say analysts New Delhi: Sharad Markad, a lanky teenager from a marginal farming family in Maharashtra, spent the first day of 2019 scrounging for funds. Faced with a drought, the third in the past five years, Markad had taken it upon himself to build a community cattle...