Business Insider

Earlier this week, the Office of the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, said that it had issued a counter-notification – the first ever of its kind – against India for violating the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture. The US government alleged that India underreported its subsidies and that its scheme of minimum price support (MSP) for wheat and rice was against the rules of the agreement.

The Hindu Business Line

India will prove at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the allegations made by the US against it on under-reporting of minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and rice are baseless, a senior government official has said.

Mint

India has categorically rejected a counter notification from the US that India’s market price support (MPS) programmes for wheat and rice breached New Delhi’s allowable levels of trade distorting domestic support at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Mint

The Telangana government on Thursday introduced Rythu Bandhu, a scheme to provide Rs4,000 per acre each to land-owning farmers for rabi and kharif seasons, and issued special passbooks for them.The programme, which has faced criticism from farmer groups for not including tenant farmers, was flagged off by chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, who distributed 298 cheques to farmers at Huzoorabad mandal in Karimnagar district. Beneficiaries will get the amount even if they do not take up farming. The state government has set aside Rs12,000 crore in the 2018-19 budget for Rythu Bandhu.

Siasat Daily

Along with Finance Minister Eatala Rajender, MPs, MLAs and Chief Secretary SK Joshi, the Chief Minister launched the Rythu Bandhu scheme and demanded that the Centre link up agriculture with Narega. The amount to be paid to the coolies will be borne equally by the Centre and farmers, he said. He also urged the Centre to announce MSP to all crops. The farmers should be cautious and avoid listening to the Congress leaders. The Congress rulers have destroyed agriculture and then chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy vowed not to give a single rupee to Telangana.

The New Indian Express

Public sector lender Indian Bank on Thursday said it is planning to slowly shift focus from the corporate sector to the risk-prone agriculture, retail and MSME (RAM) industries.

BW Businessworld

Technology is the prime mover of productivity in agriculture, where natural resources are fixed. Studies have shown that at least one third of the future growth in productivity should come through innovations in technology. The literature on agro-climatic planning and policies highlight the importance of  holistic approaches, given the resource endowments of a region. These would include agricultural diversification, including animal husbandry and the neglected sector of tree crops and forestry.

BW Businessworld

That agriculture is an enterprise has not been fully appreciated.  An inter-country evaluation shows that India ranks eleventh and twelfth respectively in services and industry – and hold your breath – second in agricultural production, overtaking the USA, Russia and Brazil despite their elephantine land holdings. It is time to celebrate India’s small farms, and recognise their operational proficiency.  Wisdom suggests a new methodological approach to evaluating productivity and profitability norms.

Nyoooz

Karam Prakash Patiala, May 10 The Punjab Government’s claims of making efforts to stop stubble burning have been belied by the fact that farmers have started burn ingstubble without caring about its consequences.