-The Tribune Chandigarh: One of the main reasons for a large number of suicides in the agriculture sector is debt. It is an established fact that Punjab farmers turn to non-institutional sources of credit despite a large network of banks in the state. At least 52.77 per cent rural households in the state are dependent on non-institutional sources for loans, says Dr Satish Verma, Professor, Reserve Bank of India Chair, CRRID. He...

-The Indian Express For the first time, the interests of farmers, livelihood losers and SC/ST communities have been given high priority. After intensive and extensive consultations lasting for over two years, the UPA 2 government succeeded in getting Parliament to pass a historic new land acquisition law in September 2013. This law completely replaced the colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The new legislation did not fully satisfy everybody but it came to...

-Deccan Herald The Green Revolution has changed life in Indian villages, but the main beneficiaries were the landlords. Daily labourers remain poor and marginalised. The limits of using ever more fertiliser and pesticides are becoming apparent. Many farmers are confused because extension services want them to reconsider practices they were told to abandon not that long ago. A member of the Santal tribe, an Adivasi community, assesses things from the village perspective. Since independence...

-The Business Standard Of all the measures in the final Union Budget and Rail Budget for 2014-15, the micro-interventions that address food inflation by dismantling supply-side barriers are the most important. They carry added significance in a year when the monsoon has been deficient in a wide swathe of the western and northern parts of the country. The promise to bring down the hold of wholesale warlords in the Agricultural Produce Marketing...

-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: Food Sovereignty Alliance (FSA) has been in existence across 13 districts in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since 2013. It brings onto a common platform - Adivasi, Dalit, Pastoralist and Peasant social movements along with co-producers, to build solidarity with one another for a common vision of food sovereignty and they screened Breeding Invasions at Lamakaan on Sunday evening followed by an open forum. This film produced...