With increasing farm distress in the wake of falling farm prices in 2017, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) came out with an innovative scheme called Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY), a price deficiency payment (PDP) scheme, to support farmers. It covered eight Kharif crops in 2017-18...

Landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in state assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh in March 2017 offers a golden opportunity to change the face of UP's agriculture and thus the fate of millions that depend on it. UP with a population of more than 220 million is the most populous state...

The paper presents a case for a phased rolling out of direct benefits transfer (DBT) for Food in India. By studying all states and Union Territories on three broad parameters: demographics, performance of the existing Public Distribution System (PDS), and current state of banking infrastructure,...

Agricultural futures markets can provide useful information to farmers for taking more informed planting decisions for their crops, which are forward looking, and thus reduce their market risk. But in India, agri-futures have gone through a roller-coaster ride since their mega opening in 2003,...

Farmers in India are exposed to large agriculture risks due to vagaries of nature. One of the most effective mechanisms to mitigate agricultural risks is to have a robust insurance system. Although crop insurance has been in the country since 1972, yet it has been beset with several problems...

The Indian Government has identified a unique opportunity in using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based solutions to streamline its inefficient, ineffective, and expensive subsidy operations. By bringing all subsidies, mainly food and fertilizer subsidy, under the ICT platform,...

Landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in state assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh in March 2017 offers a golden opportunity to change the face of UP's agriculture and thus the fate of millions that depend on it. UP with a population of more than 220 million is the most populous state...