-Business Standard Subsidised farm credit also goes to companies There has been a massive surge in institutional agricultural credit over the past decade. But the benefit of that has not reached as much to farmers as it has to agri-businesses and companies branching out into agriculture-related activities. This is clear from an analytical study of agricultural credit by scholars at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, based on a Reserve Bank of...

-The Indian Express Unseasonal rains are breaking the back of Indian farmers. The prime minister has taken the first step by deciding to raise the existing norms of compensation by a hefty 50 per cent - from the existing Rs 9,000 per hectare for irrigated crop, Rs 4,500 per ha for unirrigated crop and Rs 12,000 per ha for perennial crop. Further, the compensation will be given to all those who...

-NDTV Vidarbha, Maharashtra: First the skies dried up, and then it rained heavily, too heavily for Ramesh Khamankar's cotton crop. In January, the cotton farmer from Maharashtra's Vidarbha region poisoned himself to death. The crisis that has engulfed this region this year was not just of bad weather, but also one which had its origins miles away from the ruined cotton fields of Vidarbha. Falling demand from China pushed down the...

-NDTV There is the reality of a farmer's suicide and then there are versions of this reality. Whether you choose to accept the farmer's context of poverty, debt and extreme risk, or deny it, often depends on the class and profession you belong to. Fields pockmarked with brown mounds create a surreal setting. At least nine suicides by farmers have been linked to the crisis in West Bengal's potato belt. Farmers have...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government showed great speed in promulgating an ordinance to push through the land acquisition act, but an investigation by HT reveals that thousands of hectares of land acquired by the government is lying unused in several states. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh top the list of states where land acquired even decades ago has not been industrialised. In the past 50 years, for instance, the...