West Bengal: An agrarian crisis looms over the State as farmers commit suicide in spite of a bumper crop. THE topic of suicide figured repeatedly in Safar Molla's conversations with his neighbours a few days before his death. The 18-year-old marginal farmer from Kaltikuri village in Bardhaman district's Bhatar block talked about it quite casually, in fact even jocularly. Everybody in the village knew he was up to his neck in...
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India to strategise on climate resilient agriculture at international meet today by Gargi Parsai
Observed changes in rainfall patterns and increased temperatures, particularly in the North-Eastern region, are the major projections on which Indian agriculture scientists are pegging their “mitigation and adaptation” plans in the farm sector in the absence of definitive long-term and area-specific data on climate change. Acknowledging that in India the “climate system is extremely complex and poorly understood in terms of extent, timing and impact”, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)...
More »Protest against lack of work under MNREGS by Shiv Sahay Singh
Sixth anniversary of the implementation of the scheme On the sixth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Scheme (MNREGS) there were protests outside the office of State Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Subrata Mukherjee here on Thursday against the absence of work and delay in payment of wages under the scheme. Stating that so far an average of 15 person-days of work per household had...
More »Farmers thwart bid to sell mining lease in Bichwa, Tekadi by Vijay Pinjarkar
-The Times of India The farmers from Bichwa and Tekadi in the district have thwarted an attempt to sell mining leases which have already been suspended by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). The state government had granted lease for manganese and dolomite mining over 17.25 hectares in Bichwa and 11.5 hectares in Tekadi to one AD Kuhite of Nagpur on March 22, 1996. The 20-year lease period expires on August 10, 2016. However,...
More »From food security to food justice by Ananya Mukherjee
If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest — almost the size of Indonesia. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 237.7 million Indians are currently undernourished (up from 224.6 million in 2008). And it is far worse if we use the minimal calorie intake norms accepted officially in India. By those counts (2200 rural/2100 urban), the number of Indians who cannot afford...
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