-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Will it be Telangana’s ‘Rythu Bandhu’ or Odisha’s ‘Kalia’ scheme which the Centre bets on in its much anticipated farm package ahead of general elections? Apart from these two schemes, the Centre is also looking at some proposals including area-based income compensation and waiving off premium for crop insurance and interest on loans for farmers who pay on time. The Centre’s farm options are due to...

-The Times of India Mills in Maharashtra and UP, the two states that account for most of India's sugar supply, owe sugarcane farmers Rs 12,700 cr. Yet, farmers do not want to move away from the crop KOLHAPUR/ MEERUT: Unrest simmers in districts of western Maharashtra and parts of Uttar Pradesh, considered the sugar bowls of the country, over unpaid cane crushing dues. Despite the problems which beset farmers, however, they have...

-The Hindu The farming work is being taken up by the Kudumbashree’s Pulimath community development society under the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana Thiruvananthapuram: A 13.5-acre ‘padasekharam’ in Plavodu ward of Pulimath grama panchayat that remained fallow for years is being transformed into a paddy field as part of the Kudumbashree District Mission’s fallow less-village activities. Taken up by the Kudumbashree’s Pulimath community development society under the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, the organic paddy...

-The Hindu Steps like limited procurement, boosting productivity and consolidating land holdings can help reduce agrarian distress Recently, there has been active discussion on the strategies addressing farm distress. There are media reports that the ‘interim Budget’ may focus on the farm sector among other things. Agrarian distress, in the present context, is mainly in terms of low agricultural prices and, consequently, poor farm incomes. Low productivity in agriculture and related supply...

-BusinessToday.in There is, however, no silver bullet solution to agrarian distress. It needs long-term planning and multi-pronged strategy. Agrarian distress has come to the centre stage of national discourse primarily because of last year's multiple farmers' marches and the electoral outcomes in the three Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. This augurs well for a sector which provides 49% of total employment and supports nearly 70% of population but...