-The Times of India Continuing suicides and intermittent protests by farmers across the country prompted the Supreme Court on Thursday to ask why the much publicised Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMBFY) had not provided relief to the hapless farmers. While the government said that it is the first year and they are ironing out the problems, a look at the details of this first year's implementation throws up more systemic...
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Is direct benefit transfer really a panacea for the rural poor? -Sanjiv Phansalkar
-VillageSquare.in Given the complex and varied situations in rural India, the results of the direct benefit transfer method are so far mixed at best and debilitating at worst, as seen in the subsidies for farm equipment and fertilizers Direct benefit transfer (DBT), a system through which government programs transfer funds directly to bank accounts of beneficiaries, is hailed as a major intervention that is expected to cut a whole lot of misdirection...
More »Collective farm gate procurement offers solutions to cover price crashes -Ajit Kanitkar
-VillageSquare.in Farmer producer companies have started to play an important role in procurement from smallholders, which guards against price crashes that has been plaguing marginalized farmers across the country despite record harvests The agricultural seasons of 2016-17 (kharif and Rabi) have not been favorable for farmers across the country. In spite of the near-normal monsoon rainfall in India in 2016 coupled with record farm production, wholesale and retail prices for agricultural commodities...
More »Agriculture finance: Post-demonetisation, cooperative banks in Maharashtra fail to disburse kharif crop loans to farmers -Partha Sarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express First, it was demonetisation and crop price crash; now it is the collapse of cooperative credit that is hurting farmers during peak kharif operations. For most Maharashtra farmers, drying up of institutional finance for kharif farming operations is what’s really hurting. Nashik (Maharashtra): Last kharif, the Nashik District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB) disbursed Rs 1,608.55 crore of crop loans during April-June, exceeding its target of Rs 1,257.18 crore. This...
More »GST from 1 July: Will farmers have to pay higher MRP on old fertiliser stocks worth Rs 9,500 cr?
-FirstPost.com The rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) starting 1 July has created a panic situation for the fertiliser industry mirroring a similar state of affairs a few weeks earlier with the consumer staple and home appliance manufacturers. An estimated 65 lakh tonne (lt) of bagged fertiliser material worth around Rs 9,500 crore already has the existing maximum retail price (MRP) printed on it. With the rise in GST rates,...
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