-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: Cotton output is expected to increase 4 per cent to 34.5 million bales (of 170 kg each) in the cotton year ending September on the back of sharp rise in yield. However, the acreage under cotton has dropped 11 per cent to 10.84 million hectares (12.29 million hectares). The yield per hectare is expected to increase to 541 kg from 459 kg, according to the second advanced...

-Livemint.com Rainfall in the entire country in August has seen a deficit of 23% so far, according to IMD data New Delhi: A patch of red signifying deficit rains, cutting across the length of India from Haryana in the north to Kerala in the south, is threatening to worsen farm distress, shows rainfall data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The June to September south-west monsoon which irrigates over half of India’s crop...

-The Indian Express The woes of pulses farmers and traders like Kagi can be put down to all-time-high imports of 6.6 mt (valued at Rs 28,524.05 crore) on top of a record domestic production of 22.4 mt in 2016-17 — made worse by the weak, behind-the-curve policy response whether to do with trade or stockholding restrictions. Agriculture in India has always suffered from lethargic and uncoordinated policy response. And there can be...

-The Indian Express The failure of populist rural credit schemes stems primarily from poor understanding of farm indebtedness in the first place. From the 1970s, a lot of private investment in tube-well irrigation, farm mechanisation and allied agricultural activities took place with bank credit support. After the establishment of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982, institutional credit flows not only accelerated, but also exhibited diversification to fund livestock...

-NDTV A bench, headed by Justice M B Lokur, directed the Centre to set up state food commissions, as mandated under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, even in the states not hit by drought. New Delhi: Judges cannot run a government and ask it to do "miracles", Attorney General K K Venugopal today told the Supreme Court while opposing fresh pleas being made by NGO 'Swaraj Abhiyan' in a...