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…
Category: Agriculture
Pawar calls the State Agri ministers meeting
The new national policy is too long a statement and short on realistic issues! Agriculture can thrive only in a growing economy! More industrialisation, urbanisation and services sector can only make agriculture market-driven and more efficient! Who says agriculture can grow only when there is more concentration on agriculture. Yes, it seems ironic that those…
Sharad Pawar’s term as Agri Minister : How it would be judged?
There was this innocent news item. It said “Sharad Pawar has to take greater interest in the cricket game and think beyond the millions and billions involved, the money, after all the all of us are contributing”(Asian Age). Yes, Pawar is more known for the game than for the game of politics and in particular…
Agriculture can’t grow in isolation!
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…
Announce a new policy for micro enterprises in agriculture!
Microcredit gets the Nobel Prize! Will micro enterprises in agriculture gets recognition? If the leadership motivates the people at the grass roots, there would be tremendous response. The Nobel Prize for Peace had justifiably been given to the Bangladeshi economist and innovative entrepreneur Prof.Mohammed Yunus for his justly famous micro credit innovative business model and…
The 11th Plan document, uninspiring and bureaucratic!
Putting agriculture as “one of the central elements” of the Plan would be a challenge. The 11th Plan is to start from April 1,2007. The next General Election is due in 2009. So, the 11th Plan document is both politics and economics! Readers can draw their own conclusions! Populist language abound in the document, at…
Food self sufficiency and food security
Has the government any clear vision? Let the government at least now onwards say clearly that the one common goal before Indian agriculture is to achieve food self sufficiency alone, before any other things are talked about. There has been of late much concern about the poor growth rate in agriculture. This has baffled everybody,…
Cabinet reshuffle? Sharad Pawar to lose portfolio?
The recent Malegaon bomb blasts had one fall-out. The home minister, Shivraj Patil, seems to have come out poorer in the wake of Sonia Gandhi’s personal visit. So, there is dissatisfaction and now the news reports have it that Sonia Gandhi has decided to replace Patil. So, the announcement by the PM about appointing anew…