-The Economic Times SILIGURI: Low level of price realization and severe shortage of storage space, potato farming is in downturn this sowing season in northern West Bengal. It is one of the highest contributing zones to national potato yield. Sowing for potato is showing a declining trend in north Bengal. “I cannot take chance again after the hardship I had to face with my last year’s crop,” said Jiban Mandal, a veteran...

-Down to Earth Death of cotton farmers due to pesticide poisoning in the Vidarbha region raises vital questions about the government's attitude towards regulation of toxic pesticides One more evil has reared its ugly head in Maharashtra’s arid Vidarbha region, which has so far been infamous for farmer suicides. Some 35 farmers in the region have died of pesticide poisoning in last four months. Most of them were working in cotton and...

-The Hindu India’s mothers are among the most malnourished in the world, but a project empowering women and fighting harmful traditions gives hope for a solution. In a small village tucked away near the Rajasthan-Gujarat border, wafts of spice once filled the air as 40-year-old Dubali Damor warmed chapatis and fried spices for her family’s evening meal. Once ready, her husband and children would tuck into plates of steaming fluffy rice and...

-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The controversy over stubble burning continued to have an impact on wheat sowing across Central and North India with the total area under wheat cultivation slumping by 12 per cent to 110.66 lakh hectares (lh) as compared to the corresponding period last year. The total acreage under rabi crops, however, inched close to normal, thanks to an increase in the area of cultivation of pulses and...