Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Farmers body to protest against anti-peasantry package unveiled by FM Nirmala Sitharamanedit
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has urged Indian peasantry and rural workers to protest against the “pro-agribusiness anti-peasantry package” unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman through the third tranche of Covid-19 stimulus today.
The Left organisation wanted peasantry and rural workers across the country to come out on May 16 at 9.30 am to protest against the “great betrayal of the peasantry by the BJP Government”.
FCI to procure paddy from U.T.edit
In a major relief to farmers, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has agreed to procure 20,000 tonnes of paddy during the upcoming Navarai and Sornavari harvest seasons from Puducherry and Karaikal regions.
Farmers in Puducherry and Karaikal regions have been selling their product to private agencies at a price lesser than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the Centre for the last 10 years.
Interview |’Wait for Fine Print, But Centre’s Agri Reforms a Step in Right Direction’edit
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday unveiled a slew of measures aimed at addressing the crisis facing India’s agriculture sector and farmers due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Most of Sitharaman’s announcements however, read like a small Union budget, replete with additions to existing schemes or reiterations of the government’s commitment to certain programmes. What was missing from the third tranche were measures which could provide immediate relief to farmers that have been hit hard by the curbs on movement and transport of goods.
Now farmers can finally breatheedit
A couple of decades back, a telecom czar said to me about the 1991 reforms: “Suddenly we could breathe.” If the three proposed agriculture reforms announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman actually go through, a farmer could well be saying that soon.
More turn to farming during lockdown in Keralaedit
Scientists at Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) said that lockdown is slowly becoming a period where more people are moving towards farming. They sold 1,500kg of seeds and 2 lakh saplings to farmers during lockdown and claimed that many of them were first-time farmers. “Though lockdown has crossed 50 days, the initial days saw strict restrictions on public movement. So, our sales actually happened in the last 30 plus days. These sales took place despite travel restrictions,” said KAU VC R Chandra Babu. Our average sales figures turned out to be significantly less compared to the sales during the lockdown period, said Babu.
Why Indian farmers have stayed poor & how Modi govt’s latest initiatives can change thatedit
The Narendra Modi government announced major reforms in the agriculture sector, including freeing farmers from the mandi monopoly, as it continued to unveil the contours of its Rs 20 lakh crore-lockdown relief package.
At a press conference Friday, the third in a series announcing the Centre’s relief package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will amend the Essential Commodities Act to exclude cereals, edible oils, oil seeds, pulses, onions and potato.
Rajasthan farmers to become entrepreneurs with a helping hand from Ashok Gehlotedit
A helping hand from Ashok Gehlot coupled with a slew of measures announced by the Modi government may prove to be a game-changer for farmers in Rajasthan. Rajasthan government on Friday announced an innovative scheme for providing loan advances to farmers up to 70 per cent of the value of the produce.
The state is going to charge mere 3 per cent interest on the loan advance while the rest 7% would be borne by the state through Sahkar Kisan Kalyan Yojana.
Government unleashes long-pending reforms to overhaul farmingedit
The Centre on Friday unleashed three crucial, long-pending reforms to reshape the architecture of farmer-market ties, allowing them to sell their produce without any restrictions, and also unveiled a Rs 1 lakh crore fund to build agri infrastructure to raise productivity and make the sector globally competitive. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the fund and said the far-reaching policy reforms were part of an 11-point action plan to revive the sector and ensure better returns for farmers. The government will amend the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, make a central law on agriculture marketing and create a legal framework to provide price assurance to farmers and help improve the quality of their produce.
Agriculture reforms take off, good deal for farmersedit
Agriculture reform in the country got a big boost with the government finally deciding to defang the 65-year-old Essential Commodities Act (ECA), which, by terrorising traders and food processors—and even importers and exporters—ensured that there was no steady buyer of farm produce. In the name of protecting the consumer—the ECA was born in a scarcity economy—the government would impose stocking limits on various commodities and these limits would abruptly be lowered if prices rose.
Freeing up the farmer: Govt to ease curbs on trade, open up marketsedit
Barely seven months after imposing limits on the maximum quantity of onion any wholesaler or retailer could keep, the Narendra Modi government on Friday announced what may turn out to be a defining “1991 moment” for Indian agriculture. The Centre, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, will amend the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) to “deregulate” agricultural foodstuffs — including all cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onions and potatoes — and allow clamping of stock limits on these only under “very exceptional circumstances” like natural calamities and famines, which cause a “surge in prices”.