-The Hindu Bengaluru: In the arid Budnahatti village just beyond Challakere, the four borewells dug to provide villagers with drinking water have started drying up because of consecutive droughts. “There is barely one inch of water yield from here, not enough for everyone in the village. We have requisitioned authorities to drill three more borewells, but we may have to go more than 1,000 feet deep to get some water,” says Eswarappa,...

-Business Standard Till the time you don’t give water to a farmer’s fields, you can’t save him from suicide. Intervening in a debate in the state Assembly on July 21, 2015, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra remarked that the state has 40 per cent of the country’s large dams, “but 82 per cent area of the state is rainfed. Till the time you don’t give water to a farmer’s fields, you can’t...

-Economic and Political Weekly Despite intensive implementation of the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, many districts of Maharashtra are reeling under severe drought. This raises questions over the usefulness of the JSA in drought-proofing, especially in the way it is being implemented. Please click here to read the article. ...

-The Hindu Addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President said that a committee of Chief Ministers was being set up to look into structural reforms in the field of agriculture. The Centre plans to invest Rs.25 lakh crore in the farm sector in the coming years to boost agricultural productivity, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Thursday. Addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President said...

-The Times of India NAGPUR (Maharashtra): Changing weather conditions in Vidarbha over the past few years have spelt doom for orange cultivation in the region. In the near seven-decade history of orange plantations here, this is the first time that an alarming 60% orange orchards have gone completely dry and, for all purposes, died this year. The loss is stark in Warud tehsil of Amravati district followed by Katol and Narkhed tehsils...