-The Hindu Business Line Bumper harvest expected on good rains, jump in area New Delhi: Production of horticultural crops for the year 2016-17 (July-June) is pegged at a record 300 million tonnes (mt), with fruits and vegetables witnessing a significant increase in output due to abundant rains and rise in area. According to the third advance estimates of horticultural production, released by the government on Thursday, the Area under cultivation went up by...

-The Hindu Business Line Only crops to have registered an increase in Area under cultivation were cotton and sugarcane New Delhi: The shortfall in sowing of oilseeds and pulses has continued to bring down the total Area under cultivation during the current kharif season as compared to the previous year. Farmers across the country have so far covered only 1,013.83 lakh hectares (ha) by end of this week as compared to 1,019.6 lakh...

-The Hindu Business Line At an organic market in Odisha, middle-class consumers get to interact with the producers of their food and appreciate traditional knowledge systems One Sunday morning in January, I visited an organic produce market located amidst dense bougainvillea creepers and rows of trees, on the grounds of the six-decade-old Christian Hospital in Bissamcuttack, a town in western Odisha’s Rayagada district. In policy and public imagination, Odisha, particularly its western districts...

-The Hindu Business Line 10 meteorological subdivisions reeling from rainfall deficit New Delhi: Deficient rains in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana seem to have hit kharif sowing this year with the total area covered coming down for the first time from the corresponding period last year. The total sown area during the ongoing kharif season had dropped to 976.34 lakh hectares (ha) by the end of the week, against 984.57 lakh...

-The Hindu Business Line A recent book shows how a cocktail of indebtedness, masculinity and consumerism acts as a trigger. For those who have wondered whether indebtedness can be the sole factor driving farmers to take their lives, here is a book that introduces much needed nuance and complexity to the debate. Nilotpal Kumar’s book, based on a study of 22 suicide cases in Ananthapur district (accompanied by a fascinating ethnographic study...