-The Indian Express This has been brought about mainly by declining price realisations in basmati paddy and Bt cotton, the two crops profitable enough to make it worthwhile for farmers to expand acreages. Jalandhar: Lease rentals on farmlands in Punjab — India’s granary state — have collapsed, providing the clearest indication of an agricultural downturn and farmers choosing to go back to growing parmal paddy in place of high-risk basmati and cotton...
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Parched Land. Farmer Suicides. Forced Migration: Drought Is Crippling Rural India -Vivek Singh
-HuffingtonPost.com In Bundelkhand, people struggle for every drop of water they can find. TIKAMGARH DISTRICT: For years, Lakshman Pal, 28, planted wheat and tended to his small field here. Each season, he hoped for rain. He looked up at the sky and waited for the showers that normally came. But for the past two years, they’ve hardly come at all. His crops eventually withered and died, crumbling to dust. In early May, Pal...
More »Why Rains Do Not End Drought And What The Government Needs To Do Urgently -Betwa Sharma
-Huffington Post NEW DELHI: It is still not certain whether the monsoons will be as "good" this year as early forecasts suggest, but at least the rains are here and are making their way across India, bringing long-awaited and direly needed succor to millions in 13 drought-ravaged states. It comes as a massive relief that people in the worst-hit areas will have water to drink and so will their animals who...
More »Kharif sowing slows down further despite monsoon progress
-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Sowing of kharif crops slowed down further in the third week of June, despite considerable progress in monsoon rains, with the total area sown falling by almost 24 per cent to 124.94 lakh hectares (lh) compared with 164.10 lh at this time last year. States have reported that till June 24, rice has been sown/transplanted on 19.86 lh (21.86 lh), pulses on 9.66 lh (12.19 lh)...
More »When life gives you tomatoes -Rahi Gaikwad
-The Hindu With crops hit by drought and the TO-1057 seed, our reporter visits Narayangaon, among the country’s largest tomato growing regions, and finds farmers struggling to cope with the failed harvest but still faithful to the fruit Last week, the grey rain clouds over the Sahyadris seemed full of promise. A few light showers, and colour was slowly returning to parched leaves and the dry earth was beginning to yield again....
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