-The Economic Times With reports of groundwater level going down in Punjab and Haryana, considered the rice bowl of India, scientists and analysts suggest its cultivation be shifted to eastern states which have better water resources. They say Punjab and Haryana should focus on basmati rice, which is largely exported, and the eastern states should produce non-basmati varieties for meeting the domestic demand. Talking to ET, Dr Swapan Kumar Dutta, deputy director general...
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Inflation, poor monsoon hit consumption in eastern India-Shine Jacob & Nirmalya Behera
-The Business Standard Consumers say they cannot buy branded FMCG items in mobile phones, customers opt for low-end handsets while retaining brand loyalty Last year, Ashok Das, a farmer-cum-fisherman from the small industrial town of Rishra in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, had promised his younger son a branded television. But last year’s bad crop output and this season’s deficient monsoon made him change his plans and finally settle on a...
More »Farmers increasingly using weather insurance to mitigate risks from climate change-Rituraj Tiwari
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: More farmers are using weather insurance to mitigate risks from climate change. Top two weather insurers -- Agricultural Insurance Corporation (AIC) and ICICI Lombard -- say business is growing at 25% annually and now covers more than 200 districts across 21 states. "The growth has been so spectacular over the past five years that as many as 12 million farmers, growing crops on over 15 million hectares...
More »Worst floods in Assam since 1998, toll mounts to 22
-The Hindustan Times The flood situation in Assam worsened on Thursday with new areas coming under water and the toll reaching 22. Altogether, 21 districts have been affected following the week-long incessant rains. The river has breached embankment at five places, affecting 1,744 villages across nine districts and 70,000 hectares of crop land. The situation in Kamrup, Nalbari and Bongaigaon in lower Assam worsened on Thursday, after the tributaries of Brahmaputra breached their...
More »Heat kills 67 in West Bengal in a day
-The Times of India The relentless heat killed 67 more people across West Bengal on Tuesday, six of them in Kolkata, pushing up the death toll to 86 in just two days. Five prize horses also died despite water and ice therapy. The Met department has warned that it will get worse as the wait for the monsoon stretches to mid-June. This is perhaps the highest number of heat-related deaths in the...
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