-Livemint.com Pulses use less water per unit crop and also address hidden hunger The severe drought across India should hopefully help focus attention on the overuse of water in agriculture. A data analysis by Roshan Kishore in this newspaper last week showed that the average water footprint for five major crops—rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane and cotton—is far higher than global averages. At the root of the problem is a policy framework that...

-PTI Radha Mohan Singh total number of agricultural workers in the country increased from 234.1 million in 2001 to 263 million in 2011. Therefore, it cannot be categorically stated that farmers are leaving the profession of agriculture. Farmers are earning less than workers in industrial and services sectors because of lower farm output, Parliament was informed Tuesday. "Income from the farm sector is less as compared to income from industrial and services sector,"...

-Economic and Political Weekly How realistic is the objective of the Government of India to double the income of farmers by 2022? Is there a precedent? From estimates of change in income of agricultural households over the period 2003-13, this article suggests what needs to be done to achieve a doubling of real incomes. A focus on income from cultivation alone will be inadequate. Policy aimed at increasing net income from...

-The Tribune While there are have been debates about the plight of farmers, hardly have we ever heard or read anything about the condition of agricultural labourers. They are the victims of economic downturn in the rural sector. THE economy of Punjab today, embroiled in various economic issues, is showing signs of crisis in the agrarian sector. We often hear and read about the woes of the farmers who are committing suicides,...

-The Hindu Business Line The only way this story of the Indian farmer will change is if policymakers ensure better remuneration for them The peasant (in India) is born in debt, lives in debt, dies in debt and bequeaths debt. This is what Sir Malcolm Darling, a famous British researcher and writer, wrote in 1925 after studying the condition of undivided Punjab’s peasants. Had Darling been alive today he would have rephrased his...