-The Hindu Business Line Bearish price trends in the global market, poor rainfall took toll on farmers in 2014 Farmers in the country were hit by a double whammy in 2014. Even as poor monsoon affected kharif output, lower commodity prices, largely influenced by a bearish trend in the global market, aggravated the agrarian crisis this year. In addition, the uncertainty over the vagaries of nature, largely through frequent unseasonal rains, compounded...

-The Indian Express Oorugonda/ Warangal: Twenty -two kilometres from Warangal, a narrow road from National Highway 202 leads to Oorugonda, a village of around a thousand farmers in Atmakur mandal. An eerie silence hangs around it, with a few middle-aged men sitting under a tree looking up inquisitively at visitors. They are not done grieving for 40-year-old Modanti Krishnamma. Last week, she killed herself after the cotton crop she and her husband...

-The Indian Express The Indian meteorological department (IMD) website states that Kautilya's Arthashastra contains records of rainfall and its impact on revenue, as well as details about relief work. Similarly, Kalidasa's Meghdoot, written around the seventh century, mentions the date of the onset of the monsoon and traces the path of monsoon clouds. Till today, forecasts are made on the same broad lines. Farmers like me still look towards indigenous knowledge for...

-The Business Standard Every year, like clockwork, India is caught between the spectre of months of crippling water shortages and drought and months of devastating floods. In 2014, there has been no respite from this annual cycle. But something new and strange is indeed afoot. Each year, the floods are growing in intensity. Each year, the rain events get more variable and more extreme. Each year, economic damages increase -...

-Mail Today     India is staring at the spectre of a possible drought as the progress of the monsoon has been abysmally slow, with authorities saying cumulative rainfall across the country has been 45 per cent below the average for this period. Reason: the El Nino effect is adversely affecting this year's monsoon, say weather experts. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its latest report, has highlighted the weak and delayed onset of...