-The New Indian Express PALAKKAD: To strengthen the capacity of women and increasing their livelihood opportunities, tribal women in Attappadi are encouraged to undertake cultivation of traditional crops   through the Neighbourhood Groups (NHG) of the Kudumbashree. A total of 506 exclusive tribal women NHGs have been constituted in Attappadi and seeds will be distributed to them before the monsoon sets in. This is being done under the Mahila Kisan Shashakthikarna Pariyojana (MKSP)...

-The Hindu Everything else can wait but agriculture cannot, said Jawaharlal Nehru. This should have been the talisman for India’s progress. Yet, successive governments have failed to accord agriculture the priority it deserves. The tragic suicide of a farmer during an Aam Aadmi Party rally in New Delhi has brought to the fore the agrarian crisis facing India. Official records reveal that more than 2.96 lakh farmers have ended their lives...

-The News Minute Kerala: A group of 101 families has created a small yet strong challenge to the idea that farming requires modern science to thrive. Since 2006, Vengeri, a village in Kozhikode district, has revolutionized everyday living and has set an example by not only managing sustainable organic farming, challenging genetically modified crops and also efficient waste management practices. Thanks to Niravu, a residential association of 100 odd homes, today Vengeri is...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, today went to Sondari village in Khunti, some 60km from Ranchi, asking village women how farming helped empower their lives. Around 10am, before they pushed off to their haats, fields or got bound to their family kitchens for the day, village women found Melinda in their midst. As the women spoke a mix of Mundari and Hindi and Melinda English,...

-Voice of America NEW DELHI: Unseasonable rains and hailstorms have damaged wide swathes of crops in India, one of the world’s biggest producers of commodities such as wheat. The government has promised to enhance compensation for millions of farmers, who are staring at huge losses. Rains lashed much of India through March -- normally the time when dry weather and rising temperatures ripen the wheat crop, making it ready to harvest. Besides wheat,...