-Livemint.com With India staring at the prospect of a poor monsoon, benign neglect of the agricultural sector continues to the present regime even as rural distress is peaking, warn analysts New Delhi: The signs were there as early as a year ago. When Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister, India was staring at the prospect of poor rains. The 12% deficit in monsoon sparked a drought that parched major farming...

-The Indian Express Poorly designed policies are largely to blame for farm distress Successive governments have transformed an unevenly prosperous rural society to one which is evenly distressed. Small and marginal farmers now feel worse off than the landless. Most suicides have taken place in the families of such farmers, especially those with no source of non-farm income. For the sense of desperation that now pervades rural India, all political parties are...

-The Indian Express Among the Modi government’s many hits was one crucial miss — agriculture. The Narendra Modi sarkar’s performance in the first year has at least five major achievements and one major miss. To ensure that this neglect does not become its Achilles’ heel, the Modi sarkar will have to focus on and initiate reforms in this weakest link in the chain — agriculture. Else, it will not let the Indian...

-HarvestPlus.org Washington DC: A new study has found that pearl millet bred to be richer in iron was able to reverse iron deficiency in school-aged Indian children in six months. In just four months, iron levels improved significantly. Previously, the same iron-rich pearl millet had been shown to provide iron-deficient Indian children under the age of three with enough iron to meet their daily needs, and adult women in Benin with more...

-Livemint.com/Bloomberg A smaller Harvest in India would ease a global surplus that sent New York prices to a five-year low in January Mumbai: Farmers in India may plant fewer acres of cotton as slumping demand from China cuts exports to the lowest level in six years. The area is set to drop as much as 10% in the 12 months starting 1 October from a record 12.97 million hectares a year earlier,...