Instead of farm loan waivers and minimum support price for crops that distort resource allocation and markets, basic income support to small and marginal farmers is a far better state mechanism
Blog
How useful will farmer support be?
It will not be easy to optimally deploy the basic income support announced by the government for small and marginal farmers. The scheme has large exclusions in the landless and the women as well
Heavy snow hurts Kashmir’s apple farmers
Extreme weather events such as untimely snowfall and heavy floods have harmed the apple crop in Kashmir; one way to reduce losses is to properly implement a crop insurance scheme
Village health workers toil tirelessly despite low wages
Village health workers have emerged as the mainstay of the primary healthcare system in rural Maharashtra. Yet, they are paid tiny amounts, get no benefits and struggle with supply shortages
Participation key to empowering Juang tribes
Treating Juang tribes of Odisha as participants in the development process rather than as recipients of development largesse will help bringing them into the national mainstream
Food forests offer better profits to farmers
Mimicking forests, progressive farmers across India have started transforming farms into a layered cropping system that is climate resilient and more productive
Weaving a future, meter by meter
In the villages of Bodoland in Assam, where every Bodo home has a loom, Sama Brahma earns a modest income from weaving, and is trying to pass on this waning traditional skill to her daughters
Can data-driven social enterprises boost farmer incomes?
A collaboration between technological and value chain enterprises working directly with farmers could help make the farm to fork value chain more organized and efficient, thus increasing returns to cultivators
Monkeys damage cashew plantations, cause fever outbreak
Fear of monkeys has gripped cashew farmers and migrant workers in Goa, as the simians have turned cashew plantations into a feeding ground, destroying the crop and transmitting a virus through ticks
Mayurbhanj villagers forced to ford river to reach schools, hospitals
Inadequate and inconvenient road connectivity due to poor planning compels many villagers in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha to risk a dangerous crossing of Burhabalang River everyday to reach the nearest town
The unending saga of farm distress in India
Farmers in India will continue to suffer unless there is a fundamental change in the pro-urban policy bias of propping up unsustainably low food prices
Temple carvers unite against scourge of silicosis
Three out of every 10 stone-carving workers in Rajasthan, who build temples, are facing death due to silicosis. They are now unionizing to demand freedom from disease and dignity in god’s work
Kamrup women lead Eri silk revival for improved livelihoods
Linking markets with traditional Eri silk weavers in many parts of Assam, non-profit organization Grameen Sahara has enabled thousands of village women to boost their household incomes
Community radio creates waves of change in Karnataka villages
Run primarily by women, the Sarathi Jhalak radio station has brought administrators, experts and villagers on the same platform, giving rural communities a voice
Bengal farmers conserve heritage rice against climate vagaries
Going against the general preference for high-yielding rice, some marginal farmers in Bankura have started conserving, documenting and propagating traditional rice varieties that are on the brink of extinction
Pipli craftsmen adapt to modern needs for better prospects
Despite falling demand, applique craftsmen and traders of Pipli in Odisha are trying to ensure that their handicraft evolves to satisfy changing aesthetic needs, with hopes for a better future
Unsafe behavior rampant in the countryside
Whether it is a national trait or simply a rural folly, there is a need to examine the cavalier neglect of basic safety rules that pervades life in villages across the country
Winter farming technologies boost incomes in cold desert
With the farming season limited to just four months in Ladakh, villagers have turned to low-cost technologies to grow vegetables in winter that improves diets and boosts incomes
Bhimashankar villagers multiply indigenous seeds
A school in Pune has got a rural community together to cultivate indigenous rice, millets and pulses, and helps them market the native varieties in order to conserve and propagate them
Mountain farmers adapt to life beyond apples
As impacts of climate change and unwise human interventions push traditional farmers in Uttarakhand to the wall, they are adapting by embracing new crops and livelihoods