Siraj Hussain
Hussain is former Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (GoI) and currently Visiting Senior Fellow at ICRIER
Articles By Siraj Hussain
From Plate to Plough: Premium delayed, farmer denied
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana does not inspire confidence of farmers. They have to wait for months, sometimes years to get compensation.
From Plate to Plough: How to help the farmer
Price deficiency payment schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana do not cover farmers’ losses. Telangana’s input support scheme deserves nation-wide emulation.
From Plate to Plough: Left behind on the farm
Farmers have suffered in the last three-and-a-half years. For the prime minister and the BJP, agricultural reforms make both economic and political sense.
From Plate to Plough: Onion tears and how to wipe them
Onion farmers have suffered even in a bumper crop year. Needed: Scientific storage facilities, a judicious trade policy.
Innovators, not pirates
India must curb intellectual property rights violations, like the one on herbicide tolerant Bt cotton, in order to become an innovation hub.
A sketchy roadmap
NITI Aayog’s three year agenda does not recognise the role of trade policy in agriculture, and is silent on money-guzzling food and fertiliser subsidies
From plate to plough: Tall tales for farmers
The first time the PM had shared his dream of doubling farmers’ income (DFI) was at a kisan rally in Bareilly on February 28, 2016. A day later, the finance minister talked about this goal in his budget speech.
From plate to plough: Everybody loves a good crop
The states need to pull up their socks, make farmers stakeholders, to ensure success of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
From Plate to Plough: Lessons for the field
Diversification is essential to making Punjab a star performer in agriculture once again
From plate to plough: Farm and the tax
A smooth GST regime can break inter-state barriers on movement and facilitate direct linkages between processors and farmers
From plate to plough: An unfulfilled farm manifesto
On agriculture, three years into the Modi government, while many steps have been taken to realise promises made in 2014, others have fallen by the wayside
From plate to plough: The faraway fields
The Modi government has made the right moves with its flagship schemes for agriculture, but these have not made much difference to the lives of farmers so far
Prelude to a contagion
UP’s farm loan waiver could prompt other states to follow suit, evade real reasons for agricultural distress
No one loves the farmer
They are the largest constituency in UP. Yet, all parties have overlooked their issues
Partial security for farmers
The government’s insurance scheme for agriculture is a major success over earlier schemes. But it remains beset by implementation glitches
How to sow a reform
Some ways to relieve the pain of demonetisation in rural India.
Mandi reforms: How to make the National Agriculture Market matter to farmers
The portal needs a boost, which can come from routing all government grain purchases under minimum support price mechanism through it.
No feel for the pulse
The government has failed to provide the right incentives to farmers