Farmers in Maharashtra flock to 
a new breed of aggressive leaders Its name in Marathi means edge of the hill, but Dongarkada has no hill or mountain in its vicinity. What the village in Maharashtra's Hingoli district has is a cooperative sugar factory controlled by Congress leader Ashok Chavan. Though the Adarsh Housing Society scam rocked the state and forced him to resign as chief minister, the village remains loyal to...

About 51.54 lakh ryots lost investments Farmers in the State have suffered crop damage in a whopping 85.6 lakh acres during the 2011 kharif season, 44 per cent of the total 1,94,65,000 acres area cultivated. About 51.54 lakh farmers, including 48.33 lakh small and marginal ones, have lost the investment almost completely. In a report submitted to the State government recently, the Department of Agriculture has put the requirement of input subsidy, compensation...

-The Business Standard   Faced with a supply glut, potato farmers in Gujarat headed to streets and dumped thousands of kilos of potato in Deesa, a major potato market in the state on Tuesday. Farmers demanded an intervention from the state government with a financial assistance to the farmers, who are facing a steep fall in the potato prices at Rs 1 per kg in recent weeks. "We had approached the government about...

-The Times of India   Even though the residents of Guwahati have to buy their greens at exorbitant rates, farmers in the countryside are living in dire straits as the price at which they sell the vegetables have touched rock bottom. Last week, farmers in Barpeta, one of the vegetable-producing districts of the state, had to jettison cartloads of cucumbers on the street when the price of the produce touched 60 paise per...

It is clearly the absence of political will rather than a paucity of ideas that is responsible for the country's agrarian crisis. EXACTLY seven years ago this month, the Commission on Farmers' Welfare, appointed by the government of Andhra Pradesh, submitted its report to the then Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. His Congress government assumed office earlier that year replacing the Telegu Desam Party regime led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, which...