Livemint

The knock-on effects of the Indian grocery store going big and coming online stretch far beyond consumer benefits. From strengthening infrastructure in the farm sector to streamlining the food supply chain, thereby increasing productivity, farmers stand to benefit as well. The Union government clearing US e-commerce giant Amazon’s $500 million investment in the food retail sector earlier this week should be seen in this context.

Smart Indian Agriculture

Normal monsoons last year after two years of drought, and rich harvests have affected rural workers and farmers differently, writes Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist at HSBC in a research report. Lower rural unemployment and higher wages benefited the landless, who own less than 2.5 acres of land, and account for 70 percent of the farmers, as their income comes mainly from wages. The income of the landed comes from selling their produce, whose prices have fallen, so their incomes have suffered.

The Economic Times

Change in the Consumer Food Price Index is in the negative territory, at –2.1%. The obverse of this fall in prices is farm distress, manifesting as farmer suicide, agitations across rural India and knee-jerk farm-loan waivers. The fall in the consumer price index, in other words, is not cause for celebration, but a fit case for reversal by policy action, which would probably take the form of higher minimum support prices, sooner rather than later.

The Hindu BusinessLine

In 1991, India saw an LPG blast — liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation that changed the face of the country permanently. After 25 years from 1991, a fortnight ago, we experienced another revolutionary reform — GST with the promise of “One country-One tax”. Like any other person, I started reading GST from the view point of how it affects me and our work with small farmers on providing climate-smart farming solutions such as greenhouses. It appears to me that the GST is good for our farmers.

The Indian Express Sify

Haryana Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar on Thursday said a seed bill would be introduced for the first time during the next session of the Assembly, “which would address all species of seeds related to agricultural and horticultural crops”. “The Bill should also have full details on pesticides and insecticides management. This would be the first-of-its-kind Bill in the country,” he added.

DNA The Economic Times

The Maharashtra government is planning to come up with a fresh set of guidelines for an effective implementation of the loan waiver scheme for farmers, an official has said. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had last month announced the “historic” loan waiver of Rs 34,022 crore for farmers and subsequently laid down the eligibility criteria for availing it.

News Click

The new insurance scheme, along with a weather based insurance scheme, are replacements of the earlier two insurance schemes, NAIS (National Agriculture Insurance Scheme) and MNAIS (Modified NAIS). It is meant to cover all the loopholes and problems that arose in the previous schemes. The last two schemes were only covered by government insurance companies, and the coverage of farmers under them remained dismally low.

Dainik Jagran

Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya today made a strong case for shifting workers from agriculture to industry and encourage small enterprises to grow big with a view to accelerate economic growth. He further said that at the aggregate macro level, bringing about rapid growth is most critical as no major success in poverty alleviation is likely to happen without it.