-Down to Earth Despite the rural hinterland being in the throes of agrarian distress, the incumbent coalition has won handsomely in these very areas The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has beaten all odds to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among these odds was the agrarian crisis that rural India is currently in the throes of. Since 2014, the country has suffered two major droughts and 850-odd...
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Crops in Guj, Rajasthan hit by rain: farmers knock at govt door
-The Hindu Business Line Horticulture farmers and wheat growers are the worst hit Ahmedabad: After a devastating hailstorm and unseasonal rains earlier this week in parts of Western India that damaged crops, farmers in Rajasthan and Gujarat are now pinning their hopes on the government assistance to make up for the losses. The worst hit are horticulture farmers and wheat growers, who were in the middle of the harvest season. According to estimates...
More »MS Swaminathan, father of Green Revolution, interviewed by Vishwanath Kulkarni (The Hindu Business Line)
-The Hindu Business Line Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan, Chairman of the much discussed Farmers’ Commission whose report mooted an MSP at 50 per cent above cost, feels that income support can be given in the form of free inputs or higher procurement as well. While welcoming ‘PM-Kisan’, he says cash transfer should not become a form of patronage and that the focus should shift from loan write-offs to long-term policies....
More »Number crunching helps farmers manage water -Manu Moudgil
-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...
More »Food security of farmers essential to check suicides -S Harpal Singh
-The Indian Express ‘A farmer’s distress can be handled if he does not have to worry about his next meal’ If you ask Chate Gnaneshwar — from Emaikunta in Indervelli mandal of Adilabad district or other farmers who cultivate foodgrains for self-consumption like him — of a solution to control farmer suicides, he is most likely to point out towards ensuring food security for the poor agriculture community. “The distress brought upon...
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