The farmers in the state, who had lost their crops to the recent rain and Hailstorm, may not get any compensation from the present weather-based insurance scheme in the state as Hailstorm is not covered under the policy. According to sources, the state has adopted the weather-based insurance in which the compensation is calculated on the basic parameters of temperature, rainfall and moisture levels. These parameters could be measured by...

So what caused the French Revolution? Food prices did. A Hailstorm destroyed French crops, food prices rose 88 per cent in one year, and hungry Parisians turned on their rulers. Ditto with the Tian-an-men showdown exactly 200 years later, in 1989: consumer prices rose 21 per cent in a country that had known virtually no inflation under Communist rule. The Suharto regime got overthrown in Indonesia in 1998 after food...

Showing its concern for farmers, the Mayawati government on Wednesday decided to implement the amended national agriculture insurance scheme (NAIS) and the all weather-based crop insurance scheme from the current sowing season. Both these schemes involve an expenditure of Rs 900 lakh. A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by chief minister Mayawati here on Wednesday. The NAIS, according to an official release, will be implemented...

Himachal Pradesh has now brought wheat and barley crops under an insurance scheme to protect them from adverse climatic conditions, an official statement said Sunday. The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme will cover wheat and barley crops too across the state during the 2010-11 rabi season, said the statement. Earlier, maize, paddy, potato and ginger crops were covered. Likewise, the government last year initially launched an apple crop insurance scheme in Shimla and...

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought direct and immediate intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to offer relaxations in the specifications of paddy for its procurement by the Food Corporation of India and state agencies. The CM said a failure to take immediate corrective and remedial action could lead to serious law and order problem in the days to come. Badal has also written to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad...