-The Hindu They are gripped by fear of losing valuable lands, say villagers PENUMAKA (GUNTUR District/ Karnataka): The colourful rangoli patterns are missing, there is no smell of delicacies in their houses and the warmth and bonhomie which one sees on the eve of Harvest festival are missing in villages resisting land-pooling. For families, living on fertile lands, tilling them and selling the produce at Vijayawada and other towns has been a way...

-The Hindu India's small farmers have been struggling for centuries now and they need social and governmental action to change their future Of India's 121 million agricultural holdings, 99 million are with small and marginal farmers, with a land share of just 44 per cent and a farmer population share of 87 per cent. With multiple cropping prevalent, such farmers account for 70 per cent of all vegetables and 52 per cent...

-The Pioneer Earlier, due to poor electricity supply in Jharkhand, farmers were unable to store vegetables, thereby incurring losses. Now, with the introduction of ‘desi fridges' that do not require external energy, they can get themselves a better deal, writes Aakriti Shrivastava Sanjay Singh, a smallholder farmer is market savvy. He claims to produce the best quality vegetables in his village, Madanpur, in Jharkhand. He sells his vegetables in a nearby...

-The Hindustan Times India is likely to face a cotton glut this year. The surplus, however, will be of little comfort to suicide-prone and highly indebted farmers, who stare at a sharp drop in earnings - prices are already down 14% compared with last year. The crisis has to do with a slowdown in China, which is forecast to slash by half the amount of cotton it will import this year, most...

-The Hindu Known for their hunting skills, the Yanadis catch 30 to 40 rats each day against odds in the slushy paddy fields ONGOLE (Andhra Pradesh): Pied piper got rid of rat menace by just playing his pipe in the German town of Hamelin in the medieval period, according to a legend. The job of pest controllers is not that easy as playing a tune on one's pipe despite advancement in science and...