-The Hindu Business Line 10 meteorological subdivisions reeling from rainfall deficit New Delhi: Deficient rains in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana seem to have hit kharif sowing this year with the total area covered coming down for the first time from the corresponding period last year. The total sown area during the ongoing kharif season had dropped to 976.34 lakh hectares (ha) by the end of the week, against 984.57 lakh...

-The Indian Express The consolation this time, though, is the surplus showers during June and July. It has resulted in the cumulative rainfall for the four-month southwest monsoon season (June-September) being only 4.3 per cent below normal till August 16. New Delhi: The current month is turning out to be the driest August in eight years. The country as a whole has received 25.6 per cent less area-weighted rainfall during August 1-16...

-Livemint.com Rainfall in the entire country in August has seen a deficit of 23% so far, according to IMD data New Delhi: A patch of red signifying deficit rains, cutting across the length of India from Haryana in the north to Kerala in the south, is threatening to worsen farm distress, shows rainfall data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The June to September south-west monsoon which irrigates over half of India’s crop...

-The Hindu Fifty years since the Green Revolution, the architect of the reform highlights the crisis facing Indian agriculture today It is 11 years since agronomist M.S. Swaminathan handed over his recommendations for improving the state of agriculture in India to the former United Progressive Alliance government, at the height of the Vidarbha farmer suicides crisis, but they are still to be implemented. To address the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest across...

-The Indian Express Plunged from 8.61 L hectares in 2014 to 4.5 L hectares this year Jalandhar: THE POOR rate of Basmati (fine quality aromatic rice) which Punjab farmers have been getting for the past few years has resulted in reduced acreage and, in the past four years, the area of cultivation has decreased to nearly half under the crop. Scientists say that due to decrease in Basmati cultivation, the area under...