-The Indian Express Vidarbha’s farmers have escaped the worst of drought this year and hope to gain from high arhar prices. Wardha (Maharashtra): About 95 km from Nagpur and to the left of National Highway-7 leading to Hyderabad is a 14-acre farm that is now the cynosure of many eyes. This field, at Daroda village in Hinganghat tehsil of Wardha district, radiates only green with no traces of white or brown dots —...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Farmers have lost more than 10 million tonnes of rabi crops, valued at above Rs 20,000 crore, due to unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm in February-April this year, CSE said in a report. India may have to import 10 lakh tonnes of wheat in 2015-16 as about 68.2 lakh tonnes were lost due to unseasonal rainfall, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in its report, titled 'Lived Anomaly'. In...

-Livemint.com State seeks Rs300 crore more for drinking water supply and Rs750 crore for waiving off interest payments on loans New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh has declared 35 out of 51 districts in the state as drought affected and sought an initial central assistance of Rs.2,400 crore, indicating deepening rural distress. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha have already declared parts of their state as drought affected. Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jayant Malaiya and agriculture minister...

-Livemint.com Cabinet reviews anti-hoarding measures taken by states, discusses ways to improve supplies and control spurt in prices New Delhi: With retail prices of pulses showing no signs of a climbdown, the Union cabinet on Wednesday reviewed anti-hoarding measures taken by states and discussed ways to improve supplies and control the spurt in prices. Later, finance minister Arun Jaitley chaired an inter-ministerial group meeting and said that at the centre’s insistence, states...

-The Times of India There is more to this year's rainfall deficit than meets the eye. After the monsoon was officially declared over on September 30, 17 of the country's 36 weather subdivisions had received deficient or scanty rainfall. That's about 39% of the country's area, home to over 66 crore people, nearly half the country's population. Deficient is when rains are below the average by 20% or more while scanty...