-Down to Earth Procurement at the doorstep, direct income support and reaching out to farmers can help in easing farming operations at this crucial time The extension of the nationwide lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), though necessary, will lead to a further suspension of work and no wages and means for families to support themselves. The activities in manufacturing and services, that provide non-essentials, may be suspended, though with serious...

-TheThirdPole.net Migrant workers in India, Pakistan and Nepal are crushed by poverty as earnings come to an abrupt halt in the lockdown forced by the Covid-19 pandemic Across South Asia, the impact of the Covid-19 on livelihoods has been extreme. Despite being an outlier in terms of low infection rates, and even low casualties, most South Asian countries have been left reeling due to the impact that shutdowns have had on migrant...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Resorting to conservation agriculture would not only increase crop yield, income and reduce the use of natural resources, but would also confer climate change benefits, according to a study by Indian agricultural scientists and others published in an international journal on Thursday. The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, also showed that conservation agriculture was key to meeting many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals...

-Mongabay.com * India’s ongoing lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus is threatening the agriculture sector as it overlaps with the time of harvest. * The lockdown has derailed harvest preparation and lack of agricultural labour to help in harvest and restrictions on transportation of produce despite being given waivers as essential services. * Farmer leaders and agriculture experts criticised the relief package announced by the government to aid farmers impacted by the...

-The Telegraph As the virus spreads and cases mount, the supply chain involving agricultural inputs, production, transportation and shipping will be disrupted Thirty per cent of India’s lowest income class, already undernourished, could be hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, going by the analysis of an official report and a warning from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. What might further aggravate the situation for the country’s working class, experts and...