-Hindustan Times The government plans to cover 10.25 lakh farmers in its waiver scheme, and simple calculation says it involves Rs 20,500 crore. The state has 18 lakh farmers. Of the total, therefore, 56% farmers would be covered. Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced crop loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh for farmers who own up to 5 acres of agriculture land and a flat relief...
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Punjab 3rd state to waive farm loans, to take Rs 24,000 crore hit
-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: The farm loan waiver fever is spreading across the country, threatening to place a huge additional burden on the already creaking finances of state governments. On Monday, Punjab became the third state this year — after UP and Maharashtra — to announce a total waiver of all crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh for small and marginal farmers (up to 5 acres) and a flat Rs...
More »Yogendra Yadav, convenor of Swaraj Party, interviewed by Archana Mishra (GovernanceNow.com)
-GovernanceNow.com As farmers protests take centre stage across the country, Swaraj Party convenor explains the ecological, economic and existential crisis behind this unrest. * We have recently seen farmers from Tamil Nadu protesting in the national capital. Then Maharashtra farmers protested, deciding not to send their produce to cities. The agitation has now reached Madhya Pradesh, leading to killings. Why there is sudden farmers’ unrest in the country? I think we...
More »Why bumper harvests spell doom -Ashok Gulati & Prerna Terway
-The Indian Express With a glut in agricultural production, prices have fallen below MSPs. The government needs to get the agri-market right to address the farm crisis The farmers’ protests in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra indicate that all is not well on the economic front, especially agriculture. If such unrest could happen in MP, which claims to have registered the fastest agri-GDP growth at 9.7 per cent per year during...
More »Political economy structures perpetuate myopic understanding of agriculture sector -Nirvikar Singh
-The Financial Express A half-dozen years ago, I participated in a conference on water resource challenges in India. I remember Upmanu Lall, professor at Columbia University, graphically and bluntly making the point that Punjab’s water table was not far from collapse. This has been known for years, and there have been feeble efforts to deal with the problem, but they have been far short of what is needed. My own understanding...
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