-The Indian Express The new year could witness the first national elections being fought on farmers’ issues. And it could test both the ruling BJP pushed to the defensive, particularly in the larger sugar-producing states, and the Congress under pressure to deliver loan waivers If 2017 saw the beginnings of agrarian unrest in large swathes of the country, 2018 brought it centrestage as the numero uno political issue. And almost everyone’s...

-The Indian Express For governments both at the Centre and in the concerned states, the most sensible option is to act fast. After two years of relatively good rains, large parts of Maharashtra (especially the Marathwada region and the adjoining districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, Amravati and Yavatmal), North Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and North Karnataka are reeling under drought. What is different this time is that it has been induced...

-The Hindu Business Line Wheat sowing only major aberration New Delhi: The threat of lower soil moisture levels and delays in kharif harvests across States seem to be having an adverse impact on rabi sowing. Most crops barring one or two saw lower acreage under planting till the end of the week, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday. During the current rabi season, farmers have planted only around 85...

-The Indian Express This forecast, following a joint exercise by IIT Gandhinagar and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), for the first time, provides a country-wide soil moisture forecast at seven and 30-day lead times. New Delhi: With the rabi season around the corner, a countrywide forecast prepared at the end of the monsoon season suggests deficit soil moisture conditions are likely in Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh. This forecast,...

-The Indian Express For the Modi government and farmers, it’s not MSPs for rabi, but below-MSP rates for kharif crops now being marketed, that should really worry. New Delhi: Promising something is much easier than having the capacity to deliver. This is a reality that the Narendra Modi government may have to reckon with in the current kharif marketing season itself, even as it has announced a fresh round of minimum support...