-Down to Earth Farmers rely on IMD forecasts, even though they are not always accurate, but sudden changes in advisories make it difficult for them to respond On February 21, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast thunderstorms and hailstorms in northern Maharashtra and western Madhya Pradesh on February 23 and 24. Gusty winds, hailstorms and thunderstorms over ‘isolated places’ in Pune, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik and Ahmednagar were predicted. It created...

-TheWire.in Environmentalist and water management expert Ravi Chopra says river inter-linking will sow the seeds for future conflicts between states. There is nothing new about the proposed river-interlinking project being pushed by the government, and this ‘unnecessary excess’ of a project will create more problems than it promises to solve, says environmentalist and water management expert, Dr Ravi Chopra, the director of People’s Science Institute, Dehradun and a managing trustee of the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Be prepared for a hot spring and a scorching summer. The Met office says average temperatures from March to May across half the country are likely to be above normal by more than 1 degree Celsius. These months are expected to be particularly merciless in North India. Delhi, along with Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, is likely to see average temperatures soar over 1.5 degrees above normal....

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The country received just over a third of its normal rainfall this winter, leaving a 63% deficit in January and February that raises the spectre of water scarcity in the coming summer ahead of the monsoon. Of particular concern will be the large rain and snowfall deficits in the hill states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which feed rivers flowing into the plains of north...

-Livemint.com The strategy for doubling farmer incomes will differ from state to state, and from one region to another even within a state After two consecutive years of drought, in 2014-15 and 2015-16, farmers of many crops were hit by low market prices in several states in 2016-17. In view of widespread discontent, there is a sense of urgency about addressing their issues. Therefore, the conference organized by the ministry of agriculture...