-The Indian Express Indian-American soil scientist Dr Rattan Lal said in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh soils are degraded and depleted because ‘organic matter' is quite below (.5-.2 per cent). In the past five decades, the state had achieved several firsts in the field of agriculTure and even became the first state in the country to install soil fertility map in each village to improve soil health. But the soil of Punjab...

-The Indian Express India should not allow one emergency — the pandemic — to Turn into another. Food security problems are not abating and there are clear steps that should be taken before it is too late. In the early days of India’s lockdown, stories of food insecurity were rampant. As “Unlock 2.0” progresses, many analysts hope that labour markets will provide the much needed economic resources to the vulnerable. But amidst...

-The Indian Express While the two-month national lockdown generally dampened spending, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies saw certain unusual trends in demand in certain product categories, company executives said. As India remained locked down in April and May to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, people bought more bread, cheese, coffee, and jams — but less fruity cakes. They expectedly bought a lot of hand sanitisers — but not so expectedly,...

-Livemint.com As a part of the relief measures, while the PDS system could reach a vast majority of people both in rural and urban areas, the system has failed to identify the affected informally employed labour force in largely urban areas. This makes a case for introducing an urban replica of MGNREGA With laudable measures like the increased allocation in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Pradhan Mantri...

-The Tribune Farmer producer organisations (FPOs) attempt to address problems faced by small and marginal farmers, such as dwindling income, rising input costs and decreasing landholding PerTurbed about his dwindling farm income, Kamalvir Singh, a marginal farmer from the nondescript village of Sirkapra in Patiala district, registered Nojvan Farmer Producer Company Limited in 2017. The idea was to assist small and marginal farmers and raise their income by involving them in an...