State Times

Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Lone on Monday said the government has taken several innovative measures to boost the agriculture sector in the State. He further informed the distribution of HYV seeds, mechanisation through different farm machineries, adaptation of organic farming, motivation of farmers to adopt new technologies for cultivation of crops, bringing more areas under cash crop like vegetables and potato seeds and establishment of new units of apiculture and mushrooms are the steps taken towards future planning to promote agriculture production in the State under different interventions of flagship programmes of Government of India like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

The Times of India

The farmers of Gautam Budh Nagar have sent a wish list to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ahead of the annual budget. The list sent by the farmer’s association Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KSS) has urged the government to increase the monthly credit limit of the kisan credit card from Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 2 lakh per month. Other key points of the letter are to generate employment in villages for the farming community, make technology easily available and to help in increasing credit limit on the kisan credit card.

Zee Biz

Agriculture sectors and farmers become the cornerstone of every budget in India. Union Budget 2017 seems to be no different. With good monsoons and 7th Pay Commission bounty, analysts expect rural India to do well. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation programme that started on November 9, 2016 has put a spanner in his works.

Live Mint

The Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has set a target of doubling farm incomes by 2022. A severe handicap is not what steps to take to achieve the target but knowing what current levels of farm incomes are. India does not collect data on farm incomes in regular intervals, except for one off surveys by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).

The Economic Times

The government is planning to incentivise states that implement agricultural reforms mooted by the Centre as it steps up efforts to help the sector register over 6% growth after two years of slowdown. The incentives, which would include price insurance for some crops and higher interest subventions among others, will also pave the way for private players to enter the sector.

Live Mint

The farm credit target is likely to be raised by a whopping Rs1 lakh crore to Rs10 lakh crore in Budget 2017 in order to increase credit flow in the agriculture sector. According to officials, the government may increase the agriculture credit target to Rs10 lakh crore for 2017-18 fiscal from the existing Rs9 lakh crore.

The Hans India

The rural economy has been stagnant and more volatile for the last three years. Although the area under rabi crops is 2% higher than normal this year, fertilisers use decreased by 7%, indicating slowdown in input use and probable reduction in output. Overall, agricultural sector growth may not exceed 3.5% per annum.

The Hindu Business Line

Intra operability between the NAM (National Agriculture Market) and State markets is another crucial area. Some States have taken a leaf out of the successful Karnataka model and embarked on modernisation of their primary markets. In view of the enormity of the task, a multi-agency approach at the State level, with a clear roadmap of integration of the State markets with the national market, would be a far effective solution.

Zee News

Agriculture is consistently losing its importance in India’s economic growth. The agriculture sector contributes to just 15 percent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but over 50 percent of the population is still dependent on it. Backed by continued technological innovations in the sector, India’s food grain production has more than doubled over the decades, but the same is not being capitalised to increase the revenue and profit margins of farmers. There is still a large dependency on rainfall and other climatic conditions for good yield, and post-harvest logistics remains an area of concern.

First Post

Indian agriculture is a conundrum of paradoxes. Over 50 percent of the country’s workforce depend on agriculture as a livelihood, while agriculture and allied activities contribute to only a little over 15 percent to India’s Gross Value Added (GVA). Farmers, despite being at the heart of agricultural production, receive only a paltry portion of the price paid by consumers. On an average, the income of a farmer in India is less than $2 per day. According to an NSSO survey in 2014, the income of an average farm household is about Rs 6,000 ($90) per month, only 50 percent of which comes from farming.

DNA India

For the sector that employs nearly half of the Indian population but had a mere 17% share in country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014-15, Budget 2017 is a crucial one. While some are very positive that the government would dole out goodies for agriculture and allied activities, others believe the focus would be on measures such as housing, infrastructure, employment and income tax relief.

The Hindu

The interaction between people and land is as old as human evolution. When early hunter-gatherers started to settle down in the Neolithic transition and practice agriculture, they began to change their relationship with land in a major way. Starting with the Holocene, approximately 11,500 years ago, many plants were domesticated for agriculture.

First Post

Farmers’ body Jai Kisan Andolan, a movement of Swaraj Abhiyan, in association with various farmers’ organisations and unions has sought a complete overhaul of policy framework related to agriculture and all segments of rural primary production.