-PTI   Nagpur: The six Vidarbha districts, which are most prone to farmer suicides, will get priority in allocation of solar pumps to overcome the power crisis in the region, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday. "The state government has decided to set up five lakh solar pumps (for irrigation purpose) in the first phase and necessary global tenders will be floated later this month. Farmers in the suicide-prone districts in...

-The Tribune The outlook for all things smart is opening up, including Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Varanasi, set to develop as a Smart City, will be a lighthouse for sectors seeking sustainable ways to handle demographic pressures, finite environmental resources and climate change. The Finance Minister's budget speech has promised a hundred smart cities. With urban India well covered, it is the turn now of smart agriculture, equipped both to enhance food...

-The Financial Express The government has identified 46 million hectare of agricultural land spread across 122 districts that is likely to be adversely impacted by extreme weather events and cause decline in farm output, agriculture minster Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday said. "Uncertain and erratic rainfall, delay in onset of monsoon, agricultural Droughts, excess rainfall events and other extreme weather events during crop growing seasons may affect agricultural productivity and profitability of...

-IANS NAGPUR: A record 120 debt-ridden farmers are reported to have committed suicide in November in the Drought-hit Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra, an activist said here Monday. "While at least 65 farmers ended their lives in Marathwada, another 55 took the extreme step in Vidarbha region," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said. In the past 24 hours alone, around two dozen farm folk have committed suicide, according to available...

-The Hindu Pune: The unremitting wave of farmer suicides continued in Maharashtra's rain-shadow regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha with four more farmers taking their lives in less than 48 hours, belying feeble government promises of quick succor to afflicted farmers across more than 19,000 villages in the State. According to locals and relatives, the farmers who took the extreme step were small landholders weighed down by massive debt accruing from three consecutive...