-The Indian Express The NDA government’s approach towards MGNREGA — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — has differed from that of the previous UPA regime in one significant way: There is greater emphasis now in the building of “individual household” assets, as opposed to “community” assets, under the scheme that provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do...

-The New Indian Express Something remarkable happened when the farmers came marching to Mumbai recently. Instead of greeting them with hostility, Mumbaikars welcomed them with affection, food and water. This change in attitude was triggered by the farmers’ extraordinary discipline and their efforts to ensure minimal disruption to the Mumbaikars’ routines. Even hard-boiled journalists acknowledged, for a brief moment, urbanites had realised  our farmers and adivasis were indeed facing difficult times. The...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: Reviving the debate once again over local indigenous variety versus the ones promoted by agriculture universities, an NGO Gramin Yuva Pragatik Mandal (GYPM) took up the challenge to prove that local indigenous seeds were more effective and scripted a success story. In the process, the NGO not just proved its claim right but also produced 19 traditional varieties of rice on a 10-acre plot within a...

-The Times of India PUNE: Navabai Ansari, a maid from Mangalwar Peth, is a harassed woman. It has been over two months now, but the fair price shopowner in her area won’t give her food grains as her husband’s Aadhaar and the ration card are not linked. Nirmala Rajput, a daily wager, from Guruwar Peth has also been denied her mandatory ration by a fair price shopowner in her area for over...

-The Financial Express The recent spell of unseasonable rains and hailstorms in a clutch of northern states haven’t had any major adverse impact on the rabi crop being harvested, officials claimed, based on field reports. The agriculture ministry has been expecting all-time high foodgrain production of 277.5 million tonnes in 2017-18 crop year (July-June) on good distribution of monsoon rainfall last year, even though pan-India rains were just 95% of the...