-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Jaidev Mahto, 65, mortgaged 2.5 acres of land to repay a bank loan of Rs 25,000. A resident of Bardaha village in Dhanbad district, Mahato had taken the loan against his Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for Kharif crops that were damaged completely due to scarcity of rainfall this year. Hemant Singh, 50, a farmer of Pyraguri village in East Singhbhum district, took a KCC loan of Rs 28,000 for...

Agricultural insurance is supposed to protect farmers from financial hardships and risks when crop losses and damage takes place due to extreme weather events such as drought, cyclone, hailstorms, flood etc. However, in reality this does not hold true in India. Due to the failure of crop insurance schemes in India, there has been a deepening of agrarian crisis and rural distress in the recent times, particularly in the backdrop of...

-Hindustan Times The impact of climate change on India’s agriculture is more evident than ever before, but millions of small and marginal farmers do not have adequate safeguards, said a study released on Friday. The country’s farm sector is considered highly vulnerable to shifts in weather patterns as half of the cropland is dependent on rainfall, drawing around 60% of the farmers to the core of the climate-proofing debate. Climate change increases frequency...

-Business Standard Drop in wheat acreage evidence of stress in agriculture Chandigarh: Two consecutive drought years have led to rural distress in the food bowl states. At some places, this has become even worse due to the attack of the white pest. Sahiblal Shukla, a farmer in Chitrakut in Uttar Pradesh , who has spent his lifetime in ploughing fields says that, “farmers in Bundelkhand area of the state may soon pack their...

-Livemint.com Telangana 9th state to declare drought, adding to the agrarian crisis and posing a threat to the rural economy New Delhi: Telangana has declared a drought in parts of the state, becoming the ninth state this year to do so, highlighting the agrarian crisis that could cause a likely fall in the production of rain-fed crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton, and result in a further slowing of the...