-The Hindu Business Line Pulses, wheat, oilseeds gain area New Delhi: Sowing in the on-going rabi season maintained its pace of low growth in the new year with rice and coarse cereals posting a decline and oilseeds remaining stagnant compared with the average of the last five years. Total sowing till January 6 increased 2.76 per cent to 602.75 lakh hectares (lh) compared with the previous five year’s average (normal of corresponding week)...

-The Economic Times PUNE: Pulses traders have demanded lifting of the decade-old ban on export of the commodity as prices of all varieties, except chana, have fallen below the minimum support price (MSP). They have cautioned that if prices continue to remain subdued, farmers might shift to other crops. “The government should allow export of pulses to support prices,“ said Bimal Kothari, vice-president of Indian Pulses and Grains Association. India had banned export...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Farmer suicides in the country rose by 42% between 2014 and 2015, according to newly released data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). It recorded 5,650 suicides by farmers and cultivators in 2014. The figure rose to 8,007 in the latest data. Several states across the country battled severe drought in both 2014 and 2015. Some, including Maharashtra, experienced two successive years of drought. With 3,030 cases,...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org Farmers in Maharashtra’s Nashik district – where one in every four tomatoes in India comes from – are destroying standing crops on a scale never seen before, following persistent rock-bottom prices since the November 8 demonetisation On Christmas morning, barely 24 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the Rs. 3,600 crore Shivaji statue in Mumbai, Yashwant and Hirabai Bendkule were slashing and uprooting the tomato vines on...

-Livemint.com The impact of demonetisation on the organized sector creates a visible effect. The suffering of Bharat is diffused, invisible, but hugely more painful ‘Why doesn’t the informal sector, supposedly badly hit by demonetisation, protest or scream in pain?’. Defenders of demonetisation often pose this question. The question assumes that the suffering poor people face because of government policies always finds political expression. If you want an answer to the question, please...