-Scroll.in In a harvest-less January, the state's farming community can only count its losses. We’re here to ensure the well-being of Tamil Nadu’s farmers. That refrain was heard repeatedly last week as protestors across the state demanded that the ban on the bull-taming sport of jallikattu. The exertions through which the bulls were put, allowed farmers to identify the most virile animals, the argument went, and was vital for ensuring the survival...

-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...

-The Hindu Business Line Non-loanee farmers availing insurance may be far fewer than data claim Last January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new crop insurance scheme with the aim of bringing 50 per cent of the country’s farmers under insurance cover in three years. Data shows that in kharif 2016 — the first season after the scheme’s launch — crop insurance coverage had risen. However, despite the Centre’s claims, this growth is...

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A nationwide network of farmers today dubbed the demonetisation exercise "the most hurtful scheme since independence" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledges for the agriculture sector announced on December 31 were "a rehash of what already exists". The network of farmers' associations and representatives from across the country said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister that the demonetisation move had shown a "dismaying disregard"...