-The Hindu Business Line Arrivals more than double at key markets as farmers resort to sell-off Ahmedabad: Potato farmers in Gujarat are a worried lot. With harvest being bumper and Unseasonal rains affecting the quality, potato prices have come down to one-third of what it was last year. The first estimate, as on February 2015, puts the country’s potato output at around 421 lakh tonnes (lt) – about 6 lt higher than last...

-The Hindu Irked Minister puts officials on notice; insurance companies to face action for the fiasco Lucknow: Laxity on the part of officials seems to have impeded the State government’s efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of over 13 lakh farmers who have suffered massive crop loss on account of Unseasonal rains and hailstorm in Uttar Pradesh. Thanks to official apathy, coupled with the slow pace of relief work, the distressed farmers have...

-PTI Leader of opposition in the Legislative Council and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde questioned the basis of the state government's report to the Centre, saying that on an average seven farmers were committing suicide every day. Congress and NCP on Monday slammed the Maharashtra government for stating in a report to the Centre that only three farmers committed suicide in the state following the hailstorm and Unseasonal rains in the last...

-HuffingtonPost.in NEW DELHI: A chilling humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Maharashtra, new government data shows. As many as 601 farmers, driven to desperation after crop damage due to unseasonal hailstorm and rains, have killed themselves in the last three months alone — which amounts to almost seven farmer suicides a day, the Times of India reported. Vidarbha, from where Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis hails, accounted for the highest number of cases —...

-Hindustan Times Some global meteorological agencies have pointed to the rising risks of an El Nino weather pattern this year which can trigger a poor monsoon in India, potentially posing an immediate challenge for the Narendra Modi government. El Nino, literally “little boy” in Spanish, is a climate phenomenon marked by higher sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. Its effects vary, from storms in California to drought in Australia and India. ...