Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits • Hacker News Board

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#21

Post by rohan1024 » Thu, May 21, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #9

Wow, that's lots of money. If they're growing wheat, that's 34 bushels worth at $5 per bushel. I don't know what yields are like in India, but in Saskatchewan, Canada 34 bushels per acre of wheat is not a great crop, but it's not a bad one either. In other words, that payment could double a typical Saskatchewan farmer's gross income. And considering that the farmer's expenses are typically 90% of the income, that's a…

I think their must be clause in there somewhere which forbids from paying to already rich farmer or someone who has more than 10 acres of land.

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#22

Post by hannofcart » Thu, May 21, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

It's not all farmers. This scheme is limited to farmers of one state, Chhattisgarh.

Furthermore, this is one of the few states that the Indian National Congress (INC) holds power in the state legislative assembly. At the center however, INC has little sway, and is actually in the opposition.

It is to be noted that the party ruling at the center, and indeed, most of the states in the union is a different one: Bhartiya Janata Party, that the Indian Prime Minister belongs to.

Pointing this out because the title of this post makes it look like all farmers in India are getting cash benefits and that it's a national scheme. While in reality it's anything but.

In fact, the central government has been dragging its feet on any sort of direct cash transfers to the poor, or even small businesses for that matter, choosing instead to hand out loans to businesses in order to boost growth.

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#23

Post by rohan1024 » Thu, May 21, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

bizzleDawg wrote: post #8

Quick aside since "lakh" is used in the summary: In Indian numbering, a lakh is 100,000. There is also a crore, which is 10M.

The Indian numbering system names numbers up to 10^18. The vedic number system goes even further up to 10^62

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system#Names_...

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#24

Post by fooker » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

known wrote: post #4

State governments should reject Modi regime's stimulus package and instead seek autonomy to print local currency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer

Lol

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#25

Post by fooker » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

hannofcart wrote: post #22

It's not all farmers. This scheme is limited to farmers of one state, Chhattisgarh. Furthermore, this is one of the few states that the Indian National Congress (INC) holds power in the state legislative assembly. At the center however, INC has little sway, and is actually in the opposition. It is to be noted that the party ruling at the center, and indeed, most of the states in the union is a different one: Bhartiya…

>In fact, the central government has been dragging its feet on any sort of direct cash transfers to the poor.

It's almost as if deciding policy for 1.3 billion people without encountering unexpected effects like runaway inflation is a difficult task.

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#26

Post by pradn » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:13 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #9

Wow, that's lots of money. If they're growing wheat, that's 34 bushels worth at $5 per bushel. I don't know what yields are like in India, but in Saskatchewan, Canada 34 bushels per acre of wheat is not a great crop, but it's not a bad one either. In other words, that payment could double a typical Saskatchewan farmer's gross income. And considering that the farmer's expenses are typically 90% of the income, that's a…

Agricultural landholdings in India are pretty small. The average size of a landholding is 1.08 acres. Large landholders, defined as those holding 10+ hectares, hold about 8% of the total agricultural land. (Among them, the average holding size is 15 acres.)

http://agcensus.nic.in/document/agcen1516/T1_ac_2015_16.pdf

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#27

Post by balfirevic » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:18 PM UTC

Vysero wrote: post #14

jacknews wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly, what the heck

? I am confused by this remark.. here in the US farmers are some of the poorest people in the country. Their land is nothing more than a burden and they live at or near poverty levels.

Surely they must be strictly better off than not owning any land?

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#28

Post by bryanlarsen » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

pradn wrote: post #26

bryanlarsen wrote: post #9

Wow, that's lots of money. If they're growing wheat, that's 34 bushels worth at $5 per bushel. I don't know what yields are like in India, but in Saskatchewan, Canada 34 bushels per acre of wheat is not a great crop, but it's not a bad one either. In other words, that payment could double a typical Saskatchewan farmer's gross income. And considering that the farmer's expenses are typically 90% of the income, that's a…

Agricultural landholdings in India are pretty small. The average size of a landholding is 1.08 acres. Large landholders, defined as those holding 10+ hectares, hold about 8% of the total agricultural land. (Among them, the average holding size is 15 acres.) http://agcensus.nic.in/document/agcen1516/T1_ac_2015_16.pdf

I should have left the farm size out of my post, it's fairly irrelevant. The relevant point is that it would double a Saskatchewan wheat farm's gross income whether it was 0.5 or 5000 acres.

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#29

Post by hannofcart » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

fooker wrote: post #25

hannofcart wrote: post #22

It's not all farmers. This scheme is limited to farmers of one state, Chhattisgarh. Furthermore, this is one of the few states that the Indian National Congress (INC) holds power in the state legislative assembly. At the center however, INC has little sway, and is actually in the opposition. It is to be noted that the party ruling at the center, and indeed, most of the states in the union is a different one: Bhartiya…

>In fact, the central government has been dragging its feet on any sort of direct cash transfers to the poor. It's almost as if deciding policy for 1.3 billion people without encountering unexpected effects like runaway inflation is a difficult task.

Am not advocating for one or the other. Am not an economist.

My use of the expression `dragging its feet`, was in light of most prominent Indian economists advocating that the government must increase spending now without worrying about the deficit.

Re: Indian farmers to get direct cash benefits

#30

Post by BurningFrog » Thu, May 21, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

enitihas wrote: post #13

BurningFrog wrote: post #10

So... it's a payout to landowners?

You have to realize that vast majority of India farm land owners are small farmers (very very small compared to US farm sizes). In my town and villages, 2 acre would be considered a lot of land for a farmer, and I don't even know if there was anybody nearby with anything like 10 acres of land. Most farmers own very small pieces of land. The scheme in question will help these farmers and is a very good step for nation…

So the small landowners will get a little money.

But also the big landowners will get a lot of money?