-Down to Earth The price of cereal, paddy and oilseed has crashed in more than 1,700 markets, according to government data On a vast Farmland in Kalajhar mandi of Sangrur district, Punjab, farmers are waiting to negotiate with traders who have rejected their paddy crop infected due to humidity. Chand Singh, 70, a farmer who owns 4 hectares of Farmland in Kalajhar village, says traders rejected 20 tonnes of paddy that he cultivated...

-Down to Earth 11 states have registered a decline in natural capital between 2005 and 2015 Growth doesn’t always come at a price. But it did when it comes to India’s economic growth, which took a toll on its natural assets like forests, food, clean air, etc. A report on environment accounts released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has revealed this state. In fact, it says that when the...

-The New Indian Express The revenue officials are facing tough time due to the illegal conversion of agricultural land into residential plots by land owners. NELLORE: The revenue officials are facing tough time due to the illegal conversion of agricultural land into residential plots by land owners. It was found that illegal land conversions had allegedly been carried out on the city outskirts due to the rise in land prices. The revenue officials...

-Livemint.com Loan waivers and electricity subsidies are band-aids at best; a deeper transformation is needed The past few days have neatly summed up the scale and nature of the challenges facing India’s agriculture sector. First, the provisional agriculture census 2015-16 showed that landholdings have continued their decades-long trend of fragmentation, leading to a further rise in the proportion of small and marginal farmers. Then, 30,000 farmers, who had started their march from...

-The Hindu Floods often wash away rich, weathered soil. Rehabilitation programmes must consider this loss As the rains abate in Kerala and parts of Kodagu district in Karnataka, the loss of lives and the devastation of infrastructure and crops is apparent. However, as rebuilding is planned, what is often ignored is the soil that has been washed away. While roads and houses will be rebuilt, and crop losses compensated partially through insurance,...