-Business Standard Farmers face challenges to bring area under organic farming; organic food, however, may not be adequate to feed the growing population Organic food market in India is likely to treble in four years despite several challenges faced by farmers to bring additional area under natural farming. Currently estimated at $0.50 billion, the organic food market in India is estimated to jump to $1.36 billion by 2020, a study jointly conducted by...

-TheWire.in According to NCRB data for 2014, the suicide rate for ‘housewives’ was more than double that of farmers, though the latter gets far more media attention. What does this really indicate? In 2014, National Crime Records Bureau data showed that 20,148 housewives took then own lives across the country. This amounts to approximately 18% of all suicides that year. A recent article in the Economic and Political Weekly by political scientist Peter...

-The Indian Express The bench also issued directives for updating the drought management manual - published in 2009 — after taking into account rainfall deficit, timely declaration of drought and other factors. New Delhi: RULING THAT “the buck will eventually stop with the Government of India”, the Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Centre to consider drought as a disaster and constitute a national response force along with a consolidated fund within...

Till recently agricultural production in the current crop year was expected to be adversely affected by drought situation in more than 10 states, apart from hailstorms and excessive rainfall that happened in March. However, if one were to believe a recent forecast made by the Ministry of Agriculture, the overall foodgrain production in the country this crop year is anticipated to remain almost the same as last year. In 2014-15,...

-The Indian Express In 2014-15, the government spent Rs 5,721 crore under nine schemes formulated by the Government of India to provide social security cover to the unorganised workers. Ahmedabad: During the ten-year period between 2001-11 when the number of landless agricultural workers decreased in states like Kerala and Goa, it rose in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. As per the Census 2011, there are about 14.43 crore landless...