-The Financial Express A half-dozen years ago, I participated in a conference on water resource challenges in India. I remember Upmanu Lall, professor at Columbia University, graphically and bluntly making the point that Punjab’s water table was not far from collapse. This has been known for years, and there have been feeble efforts to deal with the problem, but they have been far short of what is needed. My own understanding...

-TheWire.in While most farmers and farm land are from rainfed areas, the government focuses only on irrigated areas. How long will this unfair treatment continue? After an intense period of farmers’ agitation, the Maharashtra government has announced a loan waiver. Madhya Pradesh continues to simmer. Tamil Nadu farmers have expressed their distress in no uncertain terms. The loan waiver will probably make the farmers feel relieved for now, but the pivotal question...

-BusinessWorld.in The recent past saw upsurge of farmers in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu over demands of implementing Swaminathan Commission's recommendation and the protests are fast spreading their arms in other states as well Keeping in mind that more than half of the Indian population depends on agriculture but the share of agriculture in GDP is nowhere near expectation, in 2002 the then National Democratic Alliance Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee called...

-Livemint.com Last year’s abundant rains in drought-prone Marathwada region, of which Latur is a part, have helped farmers produce record amount of pulses Mumbai: Latur is back on its feet and its pulse mills are running again, a year after an acute drought. The dry bed of the Manjra river, the water train from Sangli and the once ubiquitous water tankers have become things of the past. Last year’s abundant rains in Marathwada—a...

-The Financial Express Thanks to normal monsoon rains last year after two consecutive years of ‘deficient’ rainfall, India’s foodgrain production is estimated to touch an all-time high of 273.38 million tonne (MT) in the 2016-17 crop year (July-June), which is 8.7% more than the previous year. The previous record output was 265.04 MT in 2013-14. According to the third advance estimate released on Tuesday by agriculture ministry, the output of rice, wheat,...