-Business Standard Unpredictable weather may impact 30 per cent of the harvest India has been hit by unusual weather. Much of the country has endured unseasonal rain, even hailstorms. In the process, nearly 30 per cent of the rabi planting seems to have been spoiled, with adverse implications for food availability and inflation, as well as farmer distress. The first half of March has been unusually cool, besides being the wettest for...

-Deccan Herald Make new entrants provide 40 per cent risk coverage to the farming sector on a household basis. Unseasonal rains and strong winds that lashed the entire north-western region have done immense damage to the standing crops. The Union Ministry of Agriculture has estimated damage to standing crops in 50 lakh hectares in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Coming after an extended...

The Hindu In the urgency to grant industry its due with promises of ‘Make in India,' the marginalised cannot continue to be victims of grave policy neglect and continuing alienation For some years now, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)has been perceived as a roadblock to development or a facilitator for the industry depending on which side you are on. Former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan's recent letter to Sonia Gandhi...

-Business Standard Currently, the Department of Agriculture runs two crop insurance schemes, one of which is weather-based The Centre is devising an insurance product for farmers that will guarantee to make good their loss in income from natural calamities for at least seven years. For crops with minimum support prices (MSPs), the loss in income will be based on the MSP; for others, it will be calculated based on the average market...

-Down to Earth While Hudhud caused $11 billion worth of damages, the flooding in the Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir was worth $18 billion The floods in Jammu and Kashmir and Cyclone Hudhud in Peninsular India were the costliest natural disasters of 2014, a new report has said. According to the ‘Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report' by leading global reinsurance intermediary and full-service capital advisor, Aon Benfield, while Hudhud caused $11...