‘NREGS resulted in increase in cost of cultivation’ Mahendra Dev, Chairman, CACP
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Availability of labour for agricultural work and labour charges have increased on account of NREGS on which over Rs 30,000 crore are spent annually. Thereby cost of cultivation has increased and farmers’ income has declined. The scheme should be designed to benefit agricultural development.
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To help farmers the present marketing system should be changed. Farmers are selling tomatoes for Re 1 kg and consumer is paying a whopping amount of Rs30 kg. To bring about improvements in productivity, investment in research should be increased from the present level of 0.5% of GDP TO 2%.To improve farmers’ incomes development of horticulture, dairy and fisheries should be encouraged. Prof’ Mahendra Dev, Chairman, CACP. http://eenadu.net/panelhtml.asp?qrystr=htm/panel10.htm, Eenadu 070710
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“Farming is no longer a preferred profession in India”: Saurab Bhat
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‘‘Everything else can wait but agriculture” Jawaharlal Nehru
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especially among the new generation, due to high degree of uncertainty in income contributed by fragmented land holding, high monsoon dependence along with low irrigation, limited access to affordable credit, low productivity due to outdated techniques and migration of farm labour to cities. Fragmented land holdings also mean unviable mechanisation and lower productivity.
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The poor returns from farmlands coupled with rampant industrialisation and soaring real estate prices have led to diversion of productive land. Saurab Bhat-BL 050710
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“RELUCTANT FARM WORKFORCE”
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Many of the programmes of ‘inclusive growth' are, in fact, promoting an ethos of addiction to free lunches, free medical treatment, and free education, not linked with any additional effort on enterprise.
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Today, the advancement of agriculture has been seriously stymied by a labour force that is entirely disinclined and reluctant to work in farms.
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The Green Revolution became a success in India, thanks mainly to the peasantry's spirit of enterprise and hard work. If the UPA continues to put that spirit at a discount, block the advancement of frontier technologies and hamper sophisticated forms of agricultural marketing, it could lead to an actual deceleration in agriculture. India would lose an opportunity to attain an overall GDP rate of growth of 14-15 per cent, led by the agriculture engine. Sharad Joshi-B L 300610
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Pranab stresses on boosting production for food security
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The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has said that the Government will enact a legislation to provide subsidised wheat and rice to poor, but to make it a success there is a need to boost production and strengthen delivery system. The F.M said there would be no dearth of funds for agriculture sector especially from the strategic initiatives for food security of the country. He recognised that the Rs 400-crore allocated for extending Green Revolution in six eastern states was not adequate. BL 100710
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NOTE: f m is equivocating. He says that there would be no dearth of funds for agri sector and at the same time admits that fund allocation for extending green revolution in the eastern states is not adequate. What prevents him from enhancing fund allocation especially with increased revenue collections and windfall income on account of spectrum auctions?” Everything can wait but not Agriculture. J.N” krsr
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| “Planning Commission an armchair advisor” Kamal Nath |
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The minister Kamal Nath termed the body as an armchair advisor. Nath also questioned the quality of reports produced by the Plan panel saying: “You (Planning Commission) collect something from here, something from there and produce a book. It is all very well when you are an armchair advisor. Producing a book is one thing and producing a road is another thing. A book (report) should not only be well-bound, it should have content also.” BS Reporter / July 6, 2010
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| Ram.k |
July 07 , 2010 ,04:10 IST |
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| Very correct observation by Mr. Nath indeed. Planning commission is not only an arm chair advisor but also a white elephant as appropriately observed by Mr. Nehru once. It is manned by people suffering from GDP fetish. They care little for growth of major economic activity that is Agriculture and don't aim at employment generating activities. All they care about is 8 or 9% GDP GROWTH MOSTLY FROM ORGANSED INDUSTRY AND SERVICES ACTIVITIES WITH LESS EMPLOYMENT POTENTIAL AND NOT ABLE TO GENERATE 4% AGRI GROWTH TO HELP 55% OF PEOPLE DEPENDING THERE ON. BETTER WIND UP PLANNING COMMISSION AND SAVE MONEY. |
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| “Why have a Planning Commission at all?” B.S. RAGHAVAN |
| Planning commission claims to work out sectoral targets and play an integrative role in the development of a holistic approach to policy formulation in critical areas of human, social and economic development. These are just grandiloquent words. But riding on their back are as many as 34 divisions, most of which are vestiges from Nehru's days and deserve to be scrapped. Actually, in the current environment, the Planning Commission has little or no role to play. |
| If it is a question of keeping information and databases and serving as a mediator and facilitator for Ministries and States, or effecting coordination among them, a small cell attached to the Cabinet Secretariat or the Prime Minister's Office can easily serve the purpose, without having to maintain the huge paraphernalia of a bloated bureaucracy at such great expense. |
There have been periods in the past, such as between 1965 and 1969 and 1990-92, when the Planning Commission was in a state of suspended animation, with the country feeling no ill effects.
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| In the present context, dismantling it will have a wholesome effect, besides saving plenty of taxpayers' money. B L 070710 |
Increase in the total labour force of the country to 574 million by 2014-15: |
up from an estimated 520 million in 2009-10. According to the Labour Ministry's Annual Report on Employment, an incremental workforce of 10 million is expected to be added in 2009-10 and 2010-11. In the next four years till 2014-15, however, the incremental addition is projected to be 11 million a year. |
The report stressed on increasing investments in sectors such as road infrastructure and power through public-private partnerships, along with a push to labour-intensive manufacturing sectors, including food processing, textiles, garments, sugar and footwear. Service sectors such as tourism and retail trade should also be promoted, it said. BL 050710
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| Govt needs to play greater role in checking inflation: Moody's |
"India is facing its worst inflation problem in a decade, and since the central bank can do little in the short run, the government must play a greater role in addressing it, Moody's Analytics said. Surging prices of food and imports saw consumer inflation reach 13.9 per cent during the month. It said although the government has taken steps to divest stake in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and cut oil subsidies, it needs to reign in spending and borrowing because the combined central and state deficit is close to 10 per cent of the GDP. E T 090710
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| 'Mining scam in Karnataka state may top Rs 60,000 crore' |
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The iron ore mining and export scam in Karnataka is estimated to be to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore, the opposition Congress claimed today as it pushed for a CBI probe .PTI 070710
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| Wrong policies hurt cotton growers |
| For the cotton growers, there was no hike in the minimum support price for two years in a row, including the just-begun 2010-11 season. And the government virtually closed the export option two months ago, first by slapping a Customs duty and then by restricting cotton shipments, all in the name of regulating an otherwise healthy business. Export restrictions are now being eased; but the damage to India's reputation as a reliable supplier of raw cotton to the international market will take some time to repair. |
| What really prompted the unjustified changes in cotton trade and tariff policy is still a mystery. Here is a commercial crop that has actually outperformed almost all other major field crops in terms of production and productivity, and raised the growers' incomes in the process. With an estimated output this year of about 300 lakh bales, cotton is perhaps the only crop in which we enjoy a genuine export surplus after meeting domestic needs. Surely, in the last seven or eight years, there has never been a shortage of the natural fibre. Raw material availability for the industry has never been an issue. BL 250610 / |
| Organic farming area grows to 10.5 lakh hectares: Pawar : |
| Area under organic farming in India has risen to 10.5 lakh hectares in last six years. ET 070710 |
| Causes of food shortage: structural supply-side problems in the rural sector that have been aggravated by increased demand; supply chain and distribution inefficiencies, and a largely unreformed agricultural sector. The supply constraints are familiar: small plot sizes that limit mechanisation and economies of scale, inefficient use of fertilisers, water shortages and reduction in arable land area. FE 060710 |
| Drip irrigation for paddy cultivation-Experiment |
| Jain Irrigation conducted the study on a 27-cent (about a fourth of an acre) plot in which it cultivated ADT-45 variety of paddy under conventional conditions and under drip irrigation. The study showed that against a potential yield of 4 tonnes an acre estimated for the particular variety, it harvested an equivalent of 3.8 tonnes an acre under drip irrigated conditions and 3.4 tonnes under conventional flood irrigated conditions. |
| But the volume of water used with drip irrigation was 32.4 lakh litres an acre against 104 lakh litres under conventional irrigation, he said. The electricity used for drip irrigation was about half that of the conventional pumping. Subsequent studies are under way to look at increasing yields under drip irrigation systems. |
| While the results are encouraging, it will be a few years before the company is able to bring this technology to farmers, he said. The cost of cultivation would be a major disincentive. For instance, farmers would have to spend about Rs 57,000 an acre to set up the drip irrigation system which would be effectively used to cultivate paddy for about 10 seasons. There are also other costs relating to the changes in cultivation practices, such as mulching, that need to be adopted to enable drip irrigation. BL 09010 |
| 'Indians beat Americans in fin planning' |
| According to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, majority of Indians (80 per cent) responded correctly to a financial literacy test, while only 60 per cent of respondents from the US gave right answers to the test. Majority of Indians (97 per cent) take interest in creating financial plans, although the US has not more than one per cent planers. FE 090710 |
| Indian Students largest number in U S |
| India with 67,800 students accounts for largest number of foreign students in science and engineering in the United States and is followed by China with 53,740 pupils, the National Science Foundation has said. F E 090710 |
