-Down to Earth RUDRAPUR: In Udham Singh Nagar district, considered the rice bowl of Uttarakhand, thousands of farmers are dependent on groundwater resources for irrigating water-hungry crops such as rice, maize and other Kharif crops. Since the past decade, this area has been grappling with intense and rapid depletion of groundwater reserves largely due to over-extraction in the industrial area set up at different cities in the district and the cultivation...

-Newsclick.in In an interview, the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution, says while technology is necessary, policies on procurement and public distribution are far more important in making agriculture economically viable and sustainable in the country. No one has played a more instrumental role in India’s self-sufficiency in food production than Dr MS Swaminathan — world-renowned agricultural scientist, known as the ‘Father of Green Revolution in India’. After getting a PhD from Cambridge...

-The Hindu Business Line Many ryots covered by PMFBY in Jalna district faced hardship due to a bureaucratic bungle Following a BusinessLine article dated February 18 (‘When cover for farmers came a cropper’), settlement has been done to 146 farmers of Jalna district in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) under the crop insurance scheme (for Kharif 2017) by the insurer, IFFCO Tokio. Here’s a quick recap of what had happened: Jalna was badly hit by a...

-Firstpost.com Rajasthan’s relationship with summer is not a pleasant one. The shortage of water in the region only adds to the misery of the people. Even before the onset of summer, over 5,000 villages in nine districts in Rajasthan — Barmer, Churu, Pali, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jodhpur, Hanumangarh and Nagaur were declared ‘drought-affected’ by the state government. The drought in this area affects the economy of the region as employment options...

-IndiaWaterPortal.org Calculating water availability and crop budgeting can prevent over-extraction of groundwater and mounting farm debt. At 42 years, Bhagwat Ghagare seems young. But he is old enough to have seen his village prosper and decline many times. Farming had traditionally been small and distress migration rampant at Kumbharwadi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Between 1998 and 2002, a non-profit organisation, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), initiated a work related to rainwater harvesting...