Maharashtra teeters on the brink while Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, two key states contributing significantly to grain production, have already declared a drought, potentially exacerbating agrarian distress and adversely impacting food prices. Supply of pulses, sugarcane, oilseeds, soyabean and coarse grain such as bajra and jowar, is likely to be hit, with production in the rabi season, or the winter harvest, set to decline between 25% and more than 40%, compared...

-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

Policymakers have repeatedly said that commodity futures help farmers hedge their risks. But data from Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the regulator for the business worth Rs 106 lakh crore during April-October, paints a different picture. The share of agricultural trade is just a tad over 10% and within this, food products such as Soya Oil and chana accounted for less than 7% of the total value. Of course, the government itself...

Production to drop drastically this kharif season Pulses and oilseeds are likely to be dearer, particularly to the middle class and poor as their production is likely to go down drastically in the ongoing kharif season in the State. Scanty rainfall in the beginning of southwest monsoon season is the reason for lower coverage of various crops. As per the first advance production estimates prepared by the Bureau of Economics and Statistics...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...