-Scroll.in The ministry has issued showcause notices to three of its senior officials for submitting the report before Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal could vet it. The Ministry of Agriculture has withdrawn a report that said demonetisation affected millions of farmers in the country. The ministry cited a “compilation error” to justify the withdrawal and submitted a new report that says farmers did not face any “adverse impact” as a result of the...

-IndiaWaterPortal.org Here is a look at the challenges faced by small farmers in India and how they can be dealt with. As per the agricultural statistics of 2014, nearly 430 people depend on farming in India while 263 million people are either farmers or agricultural workers. Farmers are major contributors to the growth of Indian economy and their concerns impact policies in the country. Nearly 87 percent of farmers in India...

-The Indian Express For governments both at the Centre and in the concerned states, the most sensible option is to act fast. After two years of relatively good rains, large parts of Maharashtra (especially the Marathwada region and the adjoining districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, Amravati and Yavatmal), North Gujarat, Saurashtra, Kutch and North Karnataka are reeling under drought. What is different this time is that it has been induced...

-The Hindu Report concedes that farmers couldn’t buy seeds due to cash crunch. Millions of farmers in India were unable to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops because of demonetisation, according to a report submitted by the Union Agriculture Ministry to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. This official acknowledgement of the impact of demonetisation comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a rally in Jhabua, Madhya...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru/ Ahmedabad: After languishing for almost two years, the prices of pulses such as tur/arhar and urad have rebounded over the past few weeks as production has been impacted by scanty rains in the key growing regions of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Over the past two-three weeks, the prices of tur, moong, gram and urad have risen by 10-20 per cent in various markets such...