-The Hindu Says Centre prepared to set up facilities for procurement The government is prepared to create all the facilities and infrastructure needed to procure foodgrains, even as the Cabinet prepares to hike Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for kharif crops, Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said. The Union Cabinet is expected to meet on Wednesday, and approve MSPs for 23 crops at 1.5 times the input costs. For MSPs to be implemented...

-Livemint.com The concerns about the downsides of these schemes are overblown, and they could go some way in alleviating rural woes SINCe the Union Budget 2018-19, there has been a great deal of discussion in the public domain regarding the health of the rural sector. We believe that the rural sector needs some policy intervention, be it price support or INCome support. As a case in point, the agri gross domestic product...

-Livemint.com Agriculture is not only crucial for what happens to growth, inflation and rural distress, it is also politically important given the simmering discontent among farmers in the last two years Last week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared that the south-west monsoon has covered the entire country, 15 days earlier than normal. This may be a cause for celebration considering the distress in agriculture in the last four years. Agriculture is...

  The Central Water Commission (CWC) has released the state-wise and national-level annual data on human and economic costs associated with floods or excessive rainfall for the last 64 years at a time when the North East is devastated by nature's fury. That data indicates that on an average 3.2 crore Indians were affected by floods or excessive rainfall every year between 1953 and 2016. Floods or downpours took a heavy toll...

-National Herald Last year, Centre had informed the Supreme Court that despite a multi-pronged approach to improve INCome and social security of farmers, over 12,000 suicides were reported in the agricultural sector every year sINCe 2013 Over the last 48 hours, at least 24 debt ridden farmers have committed suicide. The Marathwada region in Maharashtra has alone witnessed 452 instances of suicide in the first half of 2018 Despite announcements of loan waivers...