-IndiaWaterPortal.org Calculating water availability and crop budgeting can prevent over-extraction of groundwater and mounting farm debt. At 42 years, Bhagwat Ghagare seems young. But he is old enough to have seen his village prosper and decline many times. Farming had traditionally been small and distress migration rampant at Kumbharwadi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Between 1998 and 2002, a non-profit organisation, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), initiated a work related to rainwater harvesting...

-PTI AMRITSAR: Protesting farmers in Punjab called off their agitation on Wednesday after Punjab and Haryana high court asked the state government to look into their demands. The farmers had been squatting on the rail tracks in Amritsar since March 4 in support of their demands, including full loan waiver, stopping the auction of land and arrest of farmers, and payment for sugarcane crop with 15 per cent interest. A petition seeking the...

-The Indian Express The only way to prevent a further piling-up of cane arrears would be via improved sugar realisations, according to a miller. Arrears in payments to cane farmers by sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have almost touched Rs 8,500 crore and could cross the Rs 10,000-crore mark by March-end, just ahead of voting for the coming Lok Sabha elections. According to data compiled by the Cane Commissioner’s Office in...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Switch to modern production systems has led to decline in use of farmers’ varieties and landraces’ As few as nine crops account for two-thirds of the global food output, and on-farm crop diversity has declined significantly over the decades as farmers have switched from traditional production systems that utilise farmers’ varieties and landraces to modern production systems depending on officially released varieties, shows a report on global biodiversity...

-The Hindu Business Line Worried that mounting sugarcane arrears may hit its electoral prospects in politically-important States of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Centre on Thursday decided to hike minimum selling price (MSP) of sugar by Rs.2 per kg to Rs.31. “We have increased the minimum selling price of sugar from ?29 per kg to ?31 per kg. This will help sugar mills to pay dues to cane farmers,” Food and Public...