Archive for the ‘Agriculture’ Category
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 |
BJP today said that the Indian agriculture is facing multi dimensional challenge both from within and outside. The agrarian crisis is spreading and the farmer’s indebtedness is rising thus posing a grave challenge to nation’s agri sector and also to the food security. The farmers across the country are depressed and angry as they feel let down by the UPA government.
Since the announcement of the so-called loan waiver scheme, more than 200 farmers in Maharashtra and nearly 110 farmers in Andhra Pradesh have committed suicide. This presents the pathetic condition of the farmers. The illogical and un-realistic loan waiver scheme announced with much fan-fare did not provide relief to all the needy farmers. The irony is that, of the 200 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, only 18 farmers are declared eligible.
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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 |
The Reserve Bank of India on 23 may advised scheduled commercial banks (including Local Area Banks) to take necessary action towards implementation of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme for farmers at the earliest. It has been further advised that implementation of the Scheme should be completed by June 30, 2008.
The RBI is implementing the India’s biggest populist gimmick called Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme for farmers.
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Friday, May 23rd, 2008 |
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the Guidelines for the implementation of the Farmers Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008. The Scheme will cover direct agricultural loans extended to ‘marginal and small farmers’ and ‘other farmers’ by Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Credit Institutions (including Urban Cooperative Banks) and Local Area Banks. The Scheme shall come into force with immediate effect.
‘Marginal Farmer’ means a farmer cultivating (as owner or tenant or share cropper) agricultural land up to 1 hectare (2.5 acres). ‘Small Farmers’ means a farmer cultivating (as owner or tenant or share cropper) agricultural land of more than 1 hectare and up to 2 hectares (5 acres). ‘Other Farmer’ means a farmer cultivating (as owner or tenant or share cropper) agricultural land of more than 2 hectares (more than 5 acres).
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 |
The new NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) text released by the Chairman of the NAMA negotiations Ambassador Don Stephenson yesterday is a comprehensive document and attempts to bring on board the views of all members. However the new text dilutes the ‘Para 8′ flexibilities available to developing nations according to Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) WTO and Trade Agreements committee.
He said the trade-off between the coefficients and flexibilities as proposed in the new text go against the development dimension of the Doha declaration. Mr. Gopalakrishnan added that proposing a set of coefficients 23-26 without any flexibilities goes against the accepted development principles in the Round.
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 |
In a surprising and sudden move, State Bank of India has issued a circular stopping all loans for tractors and farm machinery with immediate effect. “This is bound to impact farm machinery sales, farm productivity and food grain production. SBI is the leading financier of the farm machinery business and this move during the peak agricultural season when farmers need these loans most, will adversely affect the agriculture and economic growth” said Mr L D Mittal, President Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA)
Tractorisation and farm equipment are the key to productivity at the farm level to increase the disposable income level of the farmer. In a scenario of rising inflation particularly with respect to input costs to farmers and food prices, productivity is critical to income for the farmer and control on food prices. This move will adversely affect both, Mr Mittal added. (more…)
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 |
“The Australia-India economic relationship has grown steadily in recent years and has the potential to increase considerably as India’s economic expansion continues” says Mike Carter, Trade Commissioner, Australian Trade Commission while addressing the industry delegates at the Roundtable Discussion with Australian Delegation, organised by CII (Northern Region) at CII Northern Region Headquarters yesterday. The Trade Commissioner was accompanied by a seven member business delegation comprising business heads representing agriculture, horticulture and skill development sectors.
Recalling the trade relations between the two countries,the Trade Commissioner said “Two-way trade in goods valued over $10 billion in 2006. India ranked Australia�s 6th largest merchandise export market in 2006. India has been Australia’s fastest growing merchandise export market over the last 6 years, overtaking the UK to become Australia’s 7th largest export destination.”
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Monday, May 5th, 2008 |
Indian farmers can dial 1551 (toll-free) to get answers to farming related queries. Kisan Call Centres (KCC) are functioning in 14 locations of the country and it has been decided to increase the number to 28.
At present 144 Cell Center Agents are engaged in 14 KCCs who are answering farmers’ queries in 21 local dialects. In case Call Centre agents (at level I) are not able to completely answer the farmers queries, calls are escalated to level II, (128 in number, nationwide) where experts from Agricultural Universities answer farmers queries directly. Out of 128 L II Experts, 2 are located in Jharkhand State.
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Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 |
Wheat procurement in this season has crossed 150 lakh tonne mark. As per data collected by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Indian Government agencies have procured 154.2 lakh tonne wheat on May 1 as compared to 82.4 lakh tonne on the same day last year.
Punjab has contributed 82.9 lakh tonne, Haryana 46.5 lakh tonne, Madhya Pradesh 9.5 lakh tonne, Uttar Pradesh 8.2 lakh tonne and Rajasthan 5.5 lakh tonne and Gujarat 1.1 lakh tonne. Other States where procurement of wheat has taken place include Bihar, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
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