The global 'farmland grab' in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa has become competitive, with companies from Asia, including India and China, joining it. AN extraordinary new process has been at work in the past few years: the aggressive entry of Indian corporations into the markets for agricultural land in Africa. At one level, this process is simply following the hoary old tradition in global capitalism of firms (often supported...
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Issues-No substitute for PDS by Kuber Nag
In the rural and ‘backward' districts of Orissa, where starvation is still a real threat, the people prefer PDS to the proposed cash transfers… The Public Distribution System (PDS) is a great idea. If you go into the countryside and talk to people, you can understand the real value of the PDS. This is what I learnt by taking part in a recent survey of the PDS in Orissa, in June...
More »A pola without bulls by Barkha Mathur
Who can forget Munshi Premchand's short story 'Do Bailon Ki Katha' that immortalizes the incredible bond an Indian farmer has with his bullocks? The economics of Indian farming and animal husbandry, however, are ensuring that this bond might live only in such fables. As will the sense of gratitude and pride with which rural India worships its bullocks on the day of Pithori Amavasya, also known as Bail Pola in...
More »Eighth time lucky for Lokpal Bill? by Mohua Chatterjee
The Lokpal Bill was introduced in Parliament for the eighth time in the 15th Lok Sabha as Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj mentioned on Saturday. But surprisingly, each time the Lokpal Bill was introduced, events took such a turn that the legislation remained elusive. Will the Bill be through after the hype it got following Anna Hazare's movement? Here's a lowdown of what happened each time the Bill was introduced through the...
More »Water, not debt, driving farmers to death
-DNA Water scarcity is the main reason behind the suicide of farmers according to an approach paper on the 12th Five Year Plan (2012 to 2017) prepared by two Tamil Nadu-based experts. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, one farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes. The main cause of these suicides is non-availability of water at the initial stage of the crops leading to the ruining of crops and the subsequent...
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