We take stock of the farm sector and how the Centre’s new schemes have fared, ahead of the Budget

There’s been more brown than green over the past four years under the NDA government at the Centre — with agri GDP growth at 1.85 per cent — half of what was achieved in the 10 years of UPA between 2004-05 and 2013-14, at 3.7 per cent. There is a severe agrarian distress in the country. Crashing prices at the farmgate, freak weather, failure of the crop insurance scheme to offer adequate co...