Category: Agriculture

Create an agricultural innovation subsidy fund We need innovative ideas and projects in agriculture and agribusiness development projects It is a fact that Indian agriculture has become stagnant. Statistics have been bandied about by now by the Prime Minister, the Dy. Planning Commission boss and also by Sharad Pawar. There are simply no new innovative…

WTO is here to stay! India and farmers have to learn to make a success of WTO! WTO is a necessary good for the world agriculture. Without our agriculture or for that matter any country’s agriculture goods and services entering into the world trade the concerned agriculture goods and services won’t get the maximum prices….

What is the impact on land reforms? Should the government take over agricultural land for industry promotion? In Karnataka now there is a raging controversy over the State government’s allotment of about nearly 1,000 acres of prime agricultural lands on the outskirts of Bangalore for the IT major, Infosys. Mr.Deve Gowda, the former Prime Minister,…

We need to further remove the many controls on the agri sector Unless we become an open economy, there is not much chance for agri diversification! Indian agriculture is “not satisfactory’, says Sharad Pawar the agriculture minister. Why this state of affairs had come about? The minister of course can’t open his mouth! He might…

How to trust the Finance Minister? When his record for the farm sector is near zero! Is India’s banking sector healthy? It depends who asks this question and also who answers the question. After the bank nationlisation it is the government that controls the banks (PSBs) and the RBI supervises them. The present government in…

Such claims invite more cynicism than optimism! A mid-term review of the year, the economy projects a higher economic growth in agriculture. Some newspapers gave such figures like three to four per cent for agriculture, while others, more sober newspapers simply omitted the exact figures and simply talked of a ‘slightly higher growth rate in…

PM talks theory, theory, and theory! The Prime Minister had called a meeting of the full Planning Commisssion. What is the urgency? Obviously, the government is worried over the agri sector’s continuing growth decline. Farm growth decelerated since 1997 from 2.5 per cent to currently to a shameful 0.1 per cent! There is a decline…

Agriculture’s chances look brighter! Forget what the government says or doesn’t say! Agriculture sector, like other sectors, looks for a brighter future! There are now many positive developments like the recently concluded Hongkong WTO meet and the West Bengal CPI (M) Chief Minister’s private sector friendly approach to economic development etc. This is not the…