Friday 5 January '07
The hope as we enter 2007 is that we will walk the talk in agriculture. The debacle has been talked about for too long.Friday 22 December '06
The winner in the dry belt in Maharashtra is sugarcane and Pawar saheb is god. The rain meant high yield and assured water supply. The Minister declared a minimum price and that has done the trick. The farmers in villages still complain but there is a satisfied smileFriday
8 December '06That reform will lead to higher subsidy is wrong. It will pressure high-cost producers to modernise or shut down. Units must be allowed to modernise by de-bottlenecking to reduce costs and make fertiliser availableFriday
24 November '06When I occasionally stay overnight in Delhi, my friends in power ask me why the coloumn doesn’t reflect Boomtime India.Friday
10 November '06An undercurrent of subdued optimism is emerging in Indian agriculture. The bottoming of the commodity cycle is over. In spices, castor, kharif pulses and oilseeds, prices are good.Friday
27 October '06‘They are not victims of stagnant subsistence farming of the kind caricatured by those who want to switch land away from traditional farming’Friday
13 October '06What happens when a dry region is flush with rain water? As I sped through the beautiful Ghats into the Sahyadharis, everything was a lush green not seen before.Saturday
30 September '06Market can empower the poor as industry looks for landFriday
29 September '06The way out of the land conundrum lies with farmers’ groups, stakeholder organisations and cooperatives partnering strategic start-upsFriday
15 September '06It was never clear why hybrids failed the first time round. But with four million hectares under paddy hybrids across the country, it could be the Big HopeFriday
1 September '06Having been involved in the legislation on producer companies, and soon after I’d highlighted their significance in a column...Friday
18 August '06For water, energy and security, there are some rules that cannot be tampered with. Our political leadership cannot interfere with the system to the detriment of the lives of citizensFriday
4 August '06Reform means autonomy. For the agricultural sector it means creating the conditions for millions of peasants to access market opportunities.Friday
21 July '06Input costs are rising, but prices are not. In families with four-five bighas of land, some of the men have to move to the city. There are no young farmersFriday
7 July '06The Planning Commission has released for discussion the Approach Paper of the Eleventh Plan. Apart from the growth rate question, it obviously sees agriculture as the make or break of its vision of ‘‘inclusive growth’’.Monday
26 June '06 One way out is to be more efficient: if we find ways of producing more goods than usual with the same inputs, prices will fallFriday
23 June '06Four years ago we had gone to Visnagar in north Gujarat and studied farmer-managed irrigation systems in the Dharoi command.Saturday
17 June '06You don’t have to be Nehru to know that by giving up power you become more powerfulFriday
9 June '06Indian statisticians do a thankless job. In the present, they can only go by what the sahibs tell them. Later when the facts come in they tuck them away in their reports and get the short end of the stick.Friday
26 May '06We are in a jam over our agricultural policy, unsure of what to do. Designing new structures to raise incomes is one of the recommendations.Friday
12 May '06The idea that social workers and agricultural specialists, so-called Krushi Mitras, can visit rural households to mitigate suicidal tendencies by themselves is truly bizarre.Saturday
6 May '06India’s foodgrains policy needs to get out of the FCI-babu mindset and in line with the ways of the world if it is to benefit the farmerMonday
17 April '06To scale the heights of Sardar Sarovar, keep your feet planted on factsMonday
27 March '06The last mile to Narmada dam must be covered without the delay of squeamish reviews
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