-The Hindu Business Line Opening farm sector for global trade will give farmers a bigger market: S Narayan Farm sector distress is expected to worsen, cautioned S Narayan, who was the Economic Adviser to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. No remunerative prices Speaking on ‘Economy in Election Year’, organised by the Chennai chapter of the Observers Research Foundation, Narayan said the underlying problem is one of abundance of production and farmers not getting...

-Counterview.net Sharply contesting the Government of India claim that “open defecation has been entirely or largely eliminated” in the Hindi belt, a recent study, “Changes in open defecation in rural north India: 2014-2018” has found that “between 42% to 57% of rural people over two years old defecate in the open” in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Based on a survey of 1,558 households involving 9,812 individuals, and 156 “qualitative...

-The Hindu With no money to feed them, farmers abandon animals It could take Vijay Rawat a week’s labour to build a temporary fence of Babool tree branches and twigs around his 2.5 bigha field. The thorny plants make the process arduous; he has already suffered cuts and scratches. But if he wants to protect his valuable crops, there is little choice. He cannot afford a wire fence. For farmers like Vijay Rawat...

-Mongabay.com * In three years, India’s environment ministry approved diversion of over 20,000 hectares of forest land for developmental projects like mining, thermal power plants, irrigation, road and railway projects across India. * Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha together account for over 62 percent of the total forest land diverted during this period. * Diversion of forests for non-forestry projects has always been a contentious issue in India especially in light of poor...

-Financial Express The Government has asked the Ashok Dalwai committee to oversee the implementation of its recommendations so that the promise of doubling farmers’ income is achieved by 2022. The committee on doubling farmers’ income (DFI), headed by Ashok Dalwai, the CEO of Rainfed Area Authority, will act as an ‘empowered body’ to coordinate with different ministries as well as among various departments within the agriculture ministry, officials said. The empowered group will...