-Down to Earth RUDRAPUR: In Udham Singh Nagar district, considered the rice bowl of Uttarakhand, thousands of farmers are dependent on groundwater resources for irrigating water-hungry crops such as rice, maize and other kharif crops. Since the past decade, this area has been grappling with intense and rapid depletion of groundwater reserves largely due to over-extraction in the industrial area set up at different cities in the district and the cultivation...

-Newsclick.in In an interview, the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution, says while technology is necessary, policies on procurement and public distribution are far more important in making agriculture economically viable and sustainable in the country. No one has played a more instrumental role in India’s self-sufficiency in food production than Dr MS Swaminathan — world-renowned agricultural scientist, known as the ‘Father of Green Revolution in India’. After getting a PhD from Cambridge...

-The Hindu Business Line Many ryots covered by PMFBY in Jalna district faced hardship due to a bureaucratic bungle Following a BusinessLine article dated February 18 (‘When cover for farmers came a cropper’), settlement has been done to 146 farmers of Jalna district in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) under the crop insurance scheme (for kharif 2017) by the insurer, IFFCO Tokio. Here’s a quick recap of what had happened: Jalna was badly hit by a...

-Frontline.in The cash transfer schemes the Narendra Modi government and several State governments have announced to woo the peasantry ahead of the election, like the loan waivers, short-change farmers because they avoid the vital issue of remunerative prices for farm produce. In a sudden flurry of new-found concern for the long-suffering Indian peasant, parties across the political spectrum are desperately trying to woo this section of society. In fact, ever since...

-The Hindu Business Line Given the ballooning costs of storing grain, there is an urgent need to cut down excessive procurement of rice and wheat In 2018-19, wheat procurement at 35.8 million tonnes (mt) was the second highest ever. It is estimated that by the end of kharif marketing season in September, rice procurement may also touch an all-time high of 45 mt. With such high procurement, one of the first difficult...