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The Centre on Thursday took a bold initiative to promote pulses production by raising their minimum support price by between 14 and 30 per cent. In addition, an incentive of Rs 5 a kg for tur, urad and moong will be given if they are sold to the procurement agencies during the harvest/arrival period of two months. Effectively pegged the support price for paddy at the same level as last year.
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| The Union Textiles Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, has said he would press for an increase in the duty to ensure ample supply for the domestic spinning mills. BL 110610 |
NOTE: Despite 300% increase in labour wages for paddy transplantation and increase in diesel prices & agro chemicals, support price for paddy is not increased to compensate raising cost of cultivation. The cotton growers now face a double whammy of getting no rise in the support price for the second consecutive year and facing squeeze on the price front as the Centre has slapped duty on exports.
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| Labour shortage hits Punjab paddy growers and Hosiery Industry |
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The central government’s decision not to revise the minimum support price of paddy disheartened Punjab growers, as they face an acute shortage of labourers. Paddy transplantation in the state began at a slow pace on June 10, as fewer labourers arrived from states like Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. Besides, the rising cost of agro-chemicals and of diesel to extract underground water with pumps has hit their bottom line.
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The arrival of migrant labourers in Punjab has diluted in the past three years due to various reasons. Implementation of infrastructure projects in different parts of the country have provided an alternative employment opportunity to them in their own states. Besides, the central government’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have also ensured a 100-day employment opportunity. This means they have an option to work in their own land.
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| Earlier, the farmers used to pay Rs 700-Rs 800 an acre to the transplantation labourers. Now they are offering up to Rs 2,000 an acre, besides shelter facilities, to ensure timely completion of sowing. Landlords who bought the paddy transplanters are charging up to Rs 3,000 an acre to lease their machines and needy farmers are paying through their nose. |
Industries too in Punjab are facing an acute shortage of labourers, most of whom come from other states. In spite of revising the wages of labourers, be it unskilled, semi-skilled or highly skilled, they have found it difficult to solve the problem. The textile industry, considered to be labour-intensive, is the worst hit. To counter this crisis, many textile manufacturers in Ludhiana have started introducing methods like hiring specialists and outsourcing their work to reduce dependence on labourers. BS 159619
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| Rural India as growth engine |
Two-thirds of India's one hundred crore consumers living in rural India generate more than one third of the national income. In concrete figures, the country's rural consumer market accounted for over Rs.19 lakh crore (36% of the GDP), in 2008-09, up from Rs 12,000 lakh crore (26% of GDP) the previous year. Equally significant is the news that the number of rural households with an income of Rs. 68,000 has more than doubled from 22 to 46 per cent, bolstering the spending power of rural consumers. BL 040610
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Diminishing landholding size absence of legal protection -cause for concern-Sirinder sud
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The average size of operational agricultural holding in the country shrank from 1.69 hectares in 1985-86 to a mere 1.33 hectares in 2000-01. Worse still, the proportion of marginal landholdings (less than one hectare) rose from 57.8 per cent in 1985-86 to 62.3 per cent in 2000-01. Besides, about 19 per cent other holdings fall in the “small farms” category, measuring between 1 and 2 hectares. Thus, the small and marginal holdings together constitute a whopping 81.3 per cent of the total land holdings.
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The policies governing land leasing, are far from conducive to agriculture. A sizeable chunk of absentee landowners is wary of leasing out its lands to tenants for cultivation. This particular issue can be addressed by legalising land leasing, thereby protecting the interests of both landowners and tenants.
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Besides being unfair to farmers, the current policies concerning land acquisition, rehabilitation and compensation are not framed to suit agriculture. There are a lot of instances where good agricultural lands are acquired for non-agricultural purposes.
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| There is an urgent need to adopt a land-use policy based on the capability of the land concerned. Only the lands that are unfit for crop production should be allowed to put to non-agricultural use. Unless we guard the land, the future of Indian agriculture cannot be secure. B S 150610 |
30% of food industry unaware of safety standards: Ficci
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| According to a survey conducted by Ficci, almost 30% of the respondents, bulk of whom were from the food processing industry, were unaware that Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) is mandatory to implement. The respondents were not even aware about the existence of such an Act. FE 140610 |
May inflation at 10.16%, above estimates
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The wholesale price index rose an annual 10.16 percent in May, driven by higher food and fuel prices, government data showed on Monday. The food price index rose 16.49 percent, while fuel prices were up 13.05 percent. The revised figure for March 2010 was 11%.
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Food inflation continued to remain firm as items such as pulses, which rose over 32 per cent on a year-on-year basis, milk (21 per cent), fruits (16 per cent) and rice (8 per cent), surged in May. On a sequential basis, vegetables inflation was up 5 per cent (month-on-month), with potatoes surging over 8 per cent.
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But demand pressures have now spread to non-food manufactured products, preventing inflation from cooling off as expected. Cotton textile prices rose 21 per cent in May from the previous year, while iron and steel prices rose 20 per cent and sugar surged 26 per cent. Manufacturing inflation rose by an annual 6.41 percent, compared with 6.70 percent in April.
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| FM asks banks to lend more to Eastern, NE states |
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| Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked banks to step up lending activities and open more branches in the Eastern and Northeastern regions. The credit-deposit ratio of banks in the Eastern region is 40 per cent against the national average of 72 per cent. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will consider raising the collateral-free agri lending limit to Rs. 1 lakh from Rs 50,000, as proposed by the eastern state governments at the meeting. PTI 140610 |
| South records faster growth-CII |
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The four southern states’ real GDP rose 9.2 per cent per annum during 2005-09 and outpaced the national real GDP growth of 8.5 per cent during the same period, according to CII. The industry chamber also said the thrust in the coming fiscal would be agriculture, manufacturing, service sector, infrastructure and education. Southern states contrib-uted about 26 per cent to the GDP, and 21 per cent of the FDI flowAgriculture needs to grow at a sustained rate of 4 per cent and manufacturing at 11-12 per cent long term average. The focus should be service sector, physical infrastructure and education will be the thrust areas for the region. BS Reporter / June 15, 2010 |
