Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Five ways Budget 2017 can facilitate farmersedit
Agriculture should be the focus of this year’s Budget, according to a Twitter poll conducted by the ministry of finance last week that saw some 66% of more than 21,400 respondents seeking a more agriculture-focused Budget. Not infrastructure. Not the services and manufacturing industries. But agriculture. Clearly, to enhance the ‘feel good’ factor, agriculture has to pick up. Demonetisation compelled farmers to move towards cashless payments and digitalisation. Now they need greater ‘ease of doing business’ to harness that momentum. Here are five steps the Narendra Modi government could take to make that possible.
Five points Budget should take note of to jump-start rural agriculture economyedit
To combat the continuing slump in the agri-economy, the government should open up FDI in agricultural sectors other than those where it is already allowed. This would help jump-start the sector through investments in technology and technical expertise, irrigation infrastructure, and modern agriculture practices.
Budget 2017: What One Can expect for Agriculture?edit
In order to ensure income security for farmers, allied activities of agriculture must be given enough attention. As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2015 in Toronto, India should take up the challenge of ‘four-coloured’ revolution — Green (agriculture), White (dairy farming), Saffron (energy) and Blue (tapping marine resources) to achieve all-round development.
Punjab Elections: Now SAD-BJP Alliance Promises Farm Debt Waiveredit
After Congress and AAP promised to waive farm debt, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said SAD-BJP alliance will waive off farm debts of all small farmers if voted to power for the third consecutive time.
Agri Min calls for improving efficiency of irrigation projectsedit
Stressing that distribution of water resources in India is uneven, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today said 10 per cent increase in level of efficiency in irrigation projects and a modest investment can bring in additional 14 million hectares under irrigation. Addressing the Plenary Session of 9th Berlin Agriculture Ministers Conference at Berlin, he said distribution of water resources across the vast expanse of the country is uneven, therefore, as incomes rise the need for water also rises.
Move to double farmers’ income falls flatedit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to double the farmers’ income by 2022 is in jeopardy. While demonetisation left them high and dry in the Rabi crop sowing season, state governments are allegedly destroying the edifice on which the Prime Minister had banked to double the farmers’ income. The NITI Aayog recently complained to the Modi that each agrarian reform measure spearheaded by the Centre has been blunted by the states.