-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Hit by drought in two consecutive years due to deficit Monsoon, India's food-grain production is likely to decline this year. The government's first 'advance estimates', released on Wednesday, put the total Kharif (summer) foodgrain production for 2015-16 at 124.05 million tonnes (MT) which is 2.26 MT less than the 'actual' Kharif output of 2014-15. If one takes into account only 'first advance estimates' of Kharif foodgrain...
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The looming spectre of rural distress -Vatsala Kamat
-Livemint.com Amid all the gloom, the lower inflation rate and commodity prices could bring some respite With the southwest monsoon retracing, concerns about the deficiency of rainfall and its impact on the economy are increasing. The 15% rainfall deficit makes it the second consecutive year of less-than-normal monsoon dotted with some unseasonal showers. Together, this would have multiple ramifications on economic growth. Both macroeconomic and sectoral analysts have turned cautious and some...
More »Why Maharashtra is under stress -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express It needs to restructure its agriculture, develop sustainable cropping patterns. Laxman Singh Rathore and his entire team in the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) need to be complimented for giving us sufficient warning, well in advance, about the likelihood of yet another year of deficit rainfall. Although it was not good news, the messenger kept its honesty and boldness in speaking the bitter truth. On April 22, in its...
More »Marathwada: India’s emerging farmer suicide capital -Kavitha Iyer
-The Indian Express As many parts of the country reel under a back-to-back drought, Kavitha Iyer reports from the region that’s at the centre of the crisis. Weeks before hanging himself from a tree on his farm on June 1 this year, Kalyan Khomne, 55, read out a newspaper report to his son Shahdev. “It was about a farmer’s suicide in our taluka,” says 26-year-old Shahdev. His village, Nandurghat, and the nearby...
More »Monsoon deficient by 9% so far, uneven spread a worry -Zia Haq
-Hindustan Times India’s June-September monsoon has been deficient so far and quite uneven in its spread, with the rain-bearing system entering a phase that will largely determine whether the country can escape a drought for the first time in six years. Overall, rains have been 9% lower than normal, with sharper deficits in some areas. Rainfall during August-September, the remaining two months of the rainy season, would be poor at 84%, the...
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