According to the National Crime Records Bureau, since 2003, one Indian farmer has committed suicide every 30 minutes. In 2008, 16,196 farmers took their own lives, bringing the total number of farmer suicides in India between 1997 and 2008 to 199,132. (Significantly, P. Sainath is of the opinion that like all government data, these figures too are unreliable. For when women farmhands kill themselves, their deaths are not enlisted as...

The long and heavy monsoon has taken a toll on Himachal Pradesh's vegetable production, say farmers. The production of tomato, capsicum, cabbage, Potato and cucumber, among other vegetables, is significantly lower this time. The excess rain has either triggered the spread of diseases or the standing crops have simply rotted away due to excess moisture, say farmers. Vegetables are largely grown in the mid-hills of the state which fall in Solan, Shimla, Sirmaur,...

Punjab-based farmers, who are known for feeding the country, now want to try their hands offshore, with a group of progressive farmers all set to acquire 50,000 hectares of farm land on lease in Ethiopia for growing high-value cash crops, including pulses and maize. "We will be inking a deal with the Ethiopia government next month for getting at least 50,000 hectares of area for growing crops like pulses and...

Jagdishji Vaghela is one of hundreds of thousands of farmers standing in the way of India's breakneck economic expansion. Determined not to give up his land for an industrial park in the western state of Gujarat, the 55-year-old farmer scorns at talk of how the benefits of industrialization in Asia's third-largest economy will trickle down to people like him. Despite a nearby plant producing what is touted as the world's cheapest car,...

The market price of Potatoes in the forthcoming season, starting December, may reach Rs700 per quintal in March, according to agriculture economists. The economists have also predicted that the price of traditional basmati will range between Rs2,500 and Rs3,400 per quintal during the October-December period this year, which is the peak harvesting season for paddy. The forecasts were made by agriculture economists of Govind Ballabh Pant Agriculture University, led by Dr Jagdish...