-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kasargod: In 2000, Pidamale Govinda Bhat, 63, a middle-class areca nut farmer, rigged up an experimental check dam with sand and plastic sheets. For decades, his family had been constructing a temporary check dam across the Okkethoor river with stones and soil to irrigate their farm. “The government constructed a vented dam for us in place of our temporary check dam,” recalls Bhat. “But the sarkari dam leaked and leaked. By...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Despite MGNREGA’s rich possibilities, Kumar notes that the Maharashtra government has slashed allocations under it to Rs 800 crore in 2014-15. Even as it stares at unprecedented crop loss from back-to-back droughts followed by untimely rains/hailstorms, Maharashtra has seemingly given the short shrift to MGNREGA, which could have gone some way in mitigating the current crisis. And significantly, its potential has been least leveraged in Vidarbha, the region...

-Business Standard Greater adoption of cash crops combined with a collapse in the prices of agri-commodities has led farmers to the brink in major agricultural areas According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, nearly 64 per cent of all farmer suicides in the country in 2013 took place in the four states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, raising the question: why is rural stress resulting in farmer suicides...

-The Hindu SRIKAKULAM: Mushroom cultivation is helping many unemployed youth and tribal farmers to get decent livelihood with less investment in Srikakulam district. Women groups have joined them in learning cultivation techniques thanks to huge demand for mushrooms in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has been conducting a series of training programmes with the support of various non governmental organisations including BREDS and ARTS...

-The Hindu Handlooms are the one area where India leads the world in skill, creativity and expertise. The Handloom Reservation Act must be strengthened, not repealed Last month, Gajendra Singh, a farmer, hanged himself in New Delhi. His death attracted massive attention as it happened so publicly, in front of the hundreds of people gathered there for Aam Aadmi Party’s rally against the Land Acquisition Bill. Such attention is rare, given that...