-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's traditionally wet northeastern region has experienced a higher frequency of drought than arid western India over the past 15 years, researchers have said, cautioning that this trend has implications for crop productivity in the region. An analysis of the summer monsoon rainfall since 2000 has shown that the probability of drought was 54 per cent in the northeastern region and 27 per cent in the traditionally arid...

-The Telegraph Gaijara (Bundu): There is no approach road to this village of 200 families. Some electricity poles were erected around one and a half years ago, but electrification work remained abandoned. All three hand pumps are defunct since long. The one on the primary school premises is also non-functional. For drinking water, a nearby waterfall is the only option. The nearest health centre at Taimara village is around 8km away. Although...

-Business Standard Unless irrigation expands, agriculture will not be drought-proof Even as India celebrates the golden jubilee of the Green Revolution, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has come out with data indicating that nearly 70 per cent of farmers subsist on economically unviable farm holdings of less than a hectare in size. Over one-fifth of farm households report salaried employment, and not farming, as the prime source of their income. Around...

-The Hindu Business Line Rice millers are making a killing due to policy gaps and old rates, says report The government is losing thousands of crores while Rice mill owners are raking in the moolah, said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. The report said mill owners are cashing in on lacunae in the government’s policy on the sale of paddy and Rice by-products —...

-The Times of India Kozhikode: Despite a looming agrarian crisis, farmers in Wayanad have become the guardians of critical agro-biodiversity by nurturing traditional Rice varieties which are fast becoming extinct. They have won exclusive farmers' rights for 10 more traditional Rice varieties under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act (PPV&FR), 2001. With this, the number of Rice varieties registered as 'Farmers' varieties of Wayanad' has become 16. Seedcare, an association...