-Down to Earth The scheme's Management Information System destroys local accountability, promotes centralisation and administrative control and gives out wrong data There is an increasing tendency in the Union government to show performances of central schemes, especially social welfare programmes, through data captured by the Management Information System (MIS). It is indeed a matter of astonishment how the MIS data always shows high performances of schemes and programmes, while ground surveys and...

-Firstpost.com Landless labourers in Bihar benefit from the silt that comes down from the Himalayas by growing vegetables, but it is an extremely tough life, with very little profit for the farmer Every year after the festival of Diwali, Pramod Prasad, a landless farmer from the Surajpur village in the Bairia block of West Champaran in Bihar, packs a set of clothes and some utensils to set out for the Gandak River....

-PTI Mumbai: Police on Sunday said two debt-ridden onion farmers from Maharashtra’s Nashik district committed suicide in the last two days, due to indebtedness and low rates commanded by the bulb in markets. The deceased were identified as Tatyabhau Khairnar, 44, and Manoj Dhondage, 33. Both of them hailed from Baglan taluka in the north Maharashtra district. Nashik accounts for 50 per cent of onion production in India. Farmers here have claimed that...

-PTI MUMBAI: An onion-grower from Maharashtra, who had to sell his produce for little over Rs one per kg has sent his earnings to the Prime Minister to mark his protest. Sanjay Sathe, a resident of Niphad tehsil in Nashik district, was among the handful of 'progressive farmers' selected by the Union agriculture ministry for an interaction with then US president Barack Obama when he visited India in 2010. Speaking to PTI on...

-Hindustan Times This climate impact on agriculture is a cause for worry: the sector accounts for a large share in gross domestic product (16%) and employment (49%). Poor agricultural performance can lead to high inflation, rural distress, and political restiveness, as recent rural agitations and farmer suicides have shown. An annual review by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), a wing of the agriculture ministry, has said that crops, plantations...