-Firstpost.com Chandigarh: Two years ago, Charan Singh's tubewell ran dry just before the paddy-sowing season could start. The rice farmer, who cultivates four acres of land in the Mansa district of Punjab, had been pumping water from 45 feet below the surface. Now he had to dig another, deeper well. Like Charan Singh, 36, thousands of farmers across Punjab are astonished at the speed at which groundwater, their principal source of water...
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Tiruppur shows how it's done: on controlling industrial pollution -T Ramakrishnan
-The Hindu The court-ordered clean-up in the textile town has managed to mitigate ill-effects of industrial pollution to a large extent. A similar remediation effort, involving the government and stakeholders, is needed in other parts of Tamil Nadu, where groundwater has been so contaminated that farming is not possible anymore On a sunny June morning, two men are spotted fishing close to the Orathupalayam dam in Erode district. A rather ordinary act in...
More »Explained: What is the Swaminathan Commission report and what are its recommendations?
-MoneyControl.com The main aim of the commission was to come up with a system for sustainability in farming system and make it more profitable and cost competitive in farm commodities Farmers belonging to Madhya Pradesh began a 10-day strike on June 1 to seek better Minimum Support Price (MSP), a waiver for farm loans, higher compensation for damaged crops and full implementation of the MS Swaminathan report. Earlier this year, lakhs of farmers...
More »Pieces of a market -Ashok Gulati & Shweta Saini
-The Indian Express A single national agriculture market, promised by the BJP in its 2014 manifesto, remains a pipe dream. Can the government reform the broken APMC structure in the last year of its term? In its 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto, the BJP promised to evolve a single national agriculture market (NAM) in the country with a view to enable farmers to get a better price and consumers to pay a...
More »Farm, Fractured -V Kumara Swamy
-The Telegraph As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to mark his fourth anniversary in power, V. Kumara Swamy takes stock of how hollow his promises to farmers have been. Will there be a price to pay? Hemant Patidar, a farmer, has been camping at the Mandsaur mandi in Madhya Pradesh with 15 quintals of “good quality” garlic for more than a week now. The price has been on a downslide for the...
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