-Newsclick.in The Narendra Modi government has carried the practice of making low budgetary allocations for MGNREGS to its limit. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or MGNREGS was introduced by the United Progressive Alliance-I government despite opposition from the neo-liberal lobby within it, owing inter alia to the active intervention of the Left, which was supporting that government from outside. The scheme was restrictive from the beginning: it promised a maximum...

-GaonConnection.com At least ten districts of Bihar have reported high levels of uranium in their groundwater, the primary source of drinking water in rural areas, which far exceeds the tolerable limit prescribed by the World Health Organization. Millions in Bihar are already facing a high disease burden due to elevated levels of arsenic, fluoride and iron in their water. Presence of uranium has multiplied their worries manifold. The state government is...

-DeccanHerald.com  Thanks to a farmers' initiative, Karnataka now has around 80 desi varieties of finger millet to choose from A group of farmers and members of women’s self-help groups have gathered at Eshwar Gouda Patil’s field to celebrate ‘Ragi Field Day’. This farm in Mattighatta village, in Dharwad’s Kundagol taluk, has as many as 72 varieties of ragi (finger millet), cultivated on half an acre of land, leaves visitors awestruck. Kumara Naidu, a farmer...

-Livemint.com We do need reforms to make farming remunerative again but it will take a truly participatory effort On 19 November, in a sudden announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of three contentious farm laws passed by Parliament last September. And they were repealed on the very first Day that the House convened for its winter session. Like the way they were passed last year, the repeal was also done...

-IndiaSpend.com Punjab has seen more than 71,000 incidents of paddy straw burning this year, negating hundreds of crores spent on subsidies on straw management machines and awareness campaigns. Experts say farmers need financial incentives to take up stubble management, and must be encouraged to shift away from paddy cultivation. Chandigarh: Harbhajan Singh returned to Sadhanpur village in east Punjab's SAS Nagar district from two Days off over Diwali, to find the paddy...