-The Indian Express Two loan defaults lead to two different outcomes, year upon year, a nightmare version of déjà vu. The former exits the country; the latter exits the mortal world. Liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamond jeweler Nirav Modi could jointly run a crash course for the debt-ridden and beleaguered farmers of Vidarbha, nay the entire country: How to stay cool with unpaid debts. Mallya could tell the peasantry, for instance, how...

-The Hindu Business Line An analysis of how agri concerns will play out in four poll-bound States this year has some key takeaways for politicians ‘Rural distress’ became the major economic narrative to interpret the recent Assembly elections results for Gujarat, specifically the fact that rural support for the incumbent government was considerably less than the support from cities. The woes of the rural sector could be a bigger issue this year. Of...

-Deccan Chronicle Nearly 40 per cent of the crops were lost due to the pest attack. HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government has decided to encourage the cultivation of pulses in place of cotton during the ensuing Kharif season in June. This is because Cotton farmers had suffered huge loss in 2017 due to the pink bollworm attack and there are concerns about pests harming the cotton crop again during the kharif season....

-The Indian Express The government should not succumb to pressures for removal of trait fee on a technology that has made India the world’s No. 1 cotton producer. During the last cotton season, there were reports of the pink bollworm (PBW) not being effectively controlled, especially in some 700 villages of Maharashtra where the infestation of this insect pest was stated to be high. However, at a review meeting conducted by the...

-The Hindu The children of the farmers who committed suicide do not receive the support or counselling they need to recover from the resulting mental trauma. Jyoti Shelar visits the villages in Maharashtra worst affected by farmer suicide and reports on these minors’ struggle to get their lives back on track “Every time I open the door, I see my father’s body,” says 14-year-old Nikita Surwase, pointing at the iron shaft on...