-Down to Earth Farmers worldwide face existential threat as milk prices slump but dairy processing giants are making a windfall. Down To Earth travels to Germany, Kenya and several Indian states to take stock of the global crisis Call it the fallout of faulty farm policies of the rich or simply a demand-supply gap, dairy farmers across the world are crying for help as global milk prices slump. In India, the biggest...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Providing income security to farmers and boosting investment in agriculture are the two things that are needed to help Indian farmers in distress, said noted agricultural economist Ashok Gulati on Monday. “While there can’t be two opinions about the farmers’ plight in our country, increasing minimum support price (MSP) cannot be the solution. We may have to bring in science and our understanding to solve their...

-Down to Earth The latest provisional Agriculture Census shows that the average size of farmlands in Goa decreased by 30 per cent in five years India witnessed a jump in the number of operational farmlands between 2010-11 and 2015-16, but the same period also saw the average size of these land holdings and the area they cover take a dip, shows the provisional Agriculture Census released by the Ministry of Agriculture and...

-The Hindu The Indian education system would be a good place to start with reforms, says the development economist Jean Drèze is possibly the world’s most famous Belgian-Indian. He has lived in India since 1979, and is an Indian citizen. As a development economist and activist, he has helped draft some startlingly pro-people legislations, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, and the National Food Security Act, 2013....

-The Indian Express For governments both at the Centre and in the concerned states, the most sensible option is to act fast. After two years of relatively good rains, large parts of Maharashtra (especially the Marathwada region and the adjoining districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, Amravati and Yavatmal), North Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and North Karnataka are reeling under drought. What is different this time is that it has been induced...