-TheWire.in A recent report on farmer suicides in Punjab reveals the circumstances which lead farmers and farm labourers to take their own lives, debunks popular myths regarding the same, and points to policy measures needed to tackle the problem. Suicides are a sign of a deep crisis in a society. And in Punjab’s so-called ‘agriculturally developed society’, suicides of farmers and farm labourers have been taking place unabated for the last two...

-Hindustan Times DSR ‘tar-wattar’ (good soil moisture), a low-cost mechanical sowing technique to reduce water footprint in the cultivation of water-guzzling rice by 20%, was indigenously developed by scientists of Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University BATHINDA: As farmers are expecting a sharp rise in farm labourers’ demand to charge up to ₹6,000 per acre for paddy sowing this season, direct seeding of rice (DSR), which for the first time comes with an incentive...

-Newsclick.in Answers to all the questions you are likely to have about the Minimum Support Price and the controversy surrounding it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hope that his promise to repeal the three new farm laws will have the protesting farmers to promptly fold their tents and leave Delhi has been belied. The farmer unions have instead declared that they are not going to call off their one-year stir until the Union...

-Newsclick.in The cheer and celebrations all around following the PM's announcement, however, do not improve the farmers’ situation or ease their struggles. On the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti, Prime Minister Modi announced his government’s decision to repeal the three farm laws that were to impact the lives and livelihoods of people -- especially the very small and marginal farmers and the common people i.e. the consumers of farm produce.  This is...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...