-The Hindu What started as a dismal monsoon has since gone from bad to worse. It reached the subcontinent a few days late and its progress northwards thereafter was anything but vigorous. By the end of June, large swathes of the country had received hardly any rain and the nationwide rainfall deficit soared to 29 per cent. Even at that stage, however, there was a chance that the monsoon could recover...
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India confirms drought as El Nino looms
-Reuters Monsoon rains will not be enough to save the country from its first drought in three years, the weather office said on Thursday as it forecast that the El Nino weather pattern should reduce rains again in the second half of the June to September season. India, one of the world's largest food producers and consumers with a population of 1.2 billion, last suffered a drought in 2009, which forced it...
More »Food Security Bill to include 70% Indians
-The Business Standard The government has in principle decided to expand the coverage of population under the proposed Food Security Bill to include almost 70 per cent of Indians, who will have the legal right to cheap food, against the earlier proposal of 64 per cent of the same. It will also end the below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) demarcation, prevailing in the current public distribution system (PDS). However,...
More »Food security is a basic right-Brinda Karat
-The Times of India The present food Bill legalises the injustices of a targeted distribution system A national campaign throughout the month of July on issues related to food security and against rising prices will culminate in a five-day sit-in protest in Delhi beginning today. These are issues fundamental to the well-being of the majority of our people and therefore deserve national support. With the spectre of drought haunting the countryside, speculators, hoarders...
More »Farmers increasingly using weather insurance to mitigate risks from climate change-Rituraj Tiwari
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: More farmers are using weather insurance to mitigate risks from climate change. Top two weather insurers -- Agricultural Insurance Corporation (AIC) and ICICI Lombard -- say business is growing at 25% annually and now covers more than 200 districts across 21 states. "The growth has been so spectacular over the past five years that as many as 12 million farmers, growing crops on over 15 million hectares...
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