There’s suddenly a flurry of activity in Karotia, a nondescript village in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. Lately, a lot of politicians and state government officials have been visiting the village, and they say work on a nearly forgotten 14km irrigation canal is going to start soon. It’s been nearly 36 years since the state government first proposed to dig the canal, recalls Azizur Haque, the local panchayat chief. It was to...

The Orissa government on Monday unveiled an ambitious plan to provide agricultural credit of Rs 9165 crore in this fiscal compared to Rs 5300 crore in 2009-10. In a conscious move to avoid the embarrassment of having the tag of anti-farmers, the government has also decided to continue with 2% interest subvention on the farm credit, according to minister for agriculture and cooperation, Damodar Rout. In another significant development, the...

In India peasantry is under assault. There is a five-pronged attack on this class and the mighty Indian state is sometimes an active and sometimes a passive abettor. The first point of attack is from the corporate sector. The corporate sector is in a land grab mode. Though not justified, one could understand their urge to get land for industry and real estate purposes. Not that they are causing aggressive...

Failure of kharif crop and mounting debts stated to be reasons  The interest rate on private loans ranges between 24 and 36 per cent The district witnessed 15 deaths in 3 days during November Sixty-nine farmers from Adilabad district committed suicide during the kharif season that lasted from August to November 2009 and the number grew to 93 by December 15, if reports from the non-governmental organisations and farmers’ associations in Andhra...

It's official. Even as Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy admitted there had been 20 suicides by farmers in the state in the last 40 days, yet another case came to light on Saturday. Peddolla Nadipi Bhumanna hanged himself at home in Donchanda village of Morthad mandal late on Friday night. It’s learnt that the 55-year-old farmer, faced with crop failure, was driven to desperation because he was...