-The Indian Express Maharashtra’s horticulturists have had a good run since the 1990s when subsidies under the Employment Guarantee Scheme were offered to small and marginal farmers. Mumbai: There was a time when a farmer’s worries peaked once annually over a failed monsoon or a flood. “Now we get strange weather conditions on one day of every month,” grumbles Kiran Wagh, 35, of Tembhe village in Nashik’s Satana Taluka. “Cloudy, overcast, humid...

-The Economic Times The elders of Pimparkhed in the punishingly dry Marathwada region of Maharashtra remember the severe Drought of 1972; it was then that the village had seen water conservation work of some significance being undertaken. Over four decades later nothing has changed; this village of 1,000 residents continue to rely on tankers for its water needs. And Marathwada has turned into an epicentre of farmer suicides in the country;...

-The Week Vagaries of the weather are not the only reason for Marathwada's agrarian crisis Three widows, two daughters and an overwhelming sense of grief occupy the house of the Palwes in Kekat Jalgaon in Paithan, Aurangabad. The house lost all its men there were three in the past three years. The Palwe widows, Yashoda, Chandrabhaga and Lakshmibai, and Yashoda's two daughters, Suman, 8, and Sarita, 6, live in a hut without...

-The Times of India YAVATMAL: The first thing that strikes you about Dahegaon village is its run-down and abandoned bullock-carts. They can be found lying outside most huts, with their paint peeling off, almost frozen in time. The animals which used to operate the carts are no longer there. Nearly half the village of 5,000 people sold has off its bullocks over the last few months, says sarpanch S M Balki. The...

-Livemint.com The agriculture sector continues to be at risk from climate variability, be it Drought or excessive rainfall Unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March and April caused severe damage to more than 10 million hectares of wheat, mustard, potato and other rabi crops. Independent estimates project damages to be as high as Rs.65,000 crore. In Haryana alone, standing crops in over 1.7 million hectares of land were affected. Unexpected rainfall late...