-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

In the first high-level red-flag against the UPA government’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that while assets created under the NREGA “may or may not have productive use”, the programme was “adversely” impacting the agriculture sector by “drawing out agriculture labourers from agricultural operations”.   In a letter sent to the prime minister late last month, Pawar is...

Two ministries concerned with rural development are at loggerheads over running of the government's flagship scheme- the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The agriculture ministry is protesting the way the Rs 40, 000 crore programme is being executed, saying it has increased the burden on agriculture, which is showing just about two percent growth now.   "State-level studies by the Agro Economic Research Centres on wage rate, food security...

-The Economic Times   The Ministry of Agriculture provides assistance to farmers for remunerative returns to farmers and to ensure adequate supply of fruits and vegetables to consumers, under National Horticulture Mission and Horticulture Mission for North-East and Himalayan States ( HMNEH).  This includes assistance for cultivation, establishment of cold storages, setting up of terminal markets, wholesale markets and rural primary markets/apni mandies. National Horticulture Board is also implementing various schemes.  Further, the Ministry...

Five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides between 2003 and 2010. However, more States have reported increases over the same period. The television story was genuine and sensitive. At least 90 farmers, it said, had committed suicide in two months in Andhra Pradesh. These were cotton growers. Actually, last year, Andhra farmers killed themselves at the rate of 210 each month on average, according...