-The Hindu Election jolt makes party look at ways to boost rural income; BJP chief commissions survey The defeat in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh has made the government go back to the drawing board over the issue of rural distress, and some measures to bolster incomes in the countryside may be announced by the end of the winter session of Parliament. While the problems plaguing the agriculture sector...

Passionate about the deepening of agrarian crisis, quite often journalists and media persons cite figures related to farm suicide (as provided by the National Crime Records Bureau) in order to draw the attention of the readers. They do so in the following ways: * Compare the absolute number of farm suicides (viz. suicide by cultivators + suicide by agricultural labourers) across regions/ states for a particular time point or time period...

-The Hindu 'Will take up their genuine demands with govt.’ The BJP’s Kisan Morcha has invited farmers’ groups across the country for a dialogue on rural distress after several marches and agitations by them in the last year or so, with Morcha chief Virendra Singh Mast conceding that loan waivers were a “temporary solution” to what ails the farm sector. At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Mast said: “I had invited...

-The Hindu Congress aims to tap into ryots’ anger. Simrol (Madhya Pradesh): Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s repeated attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation at election meetings in Madhya Pradesh led the Prime Minister to declare that Mr. Gandhi’s party is yet to revive from the “shock” inflicted by the note ban. “Only the Congress and one family are still crying because what they had pilfered for four generations was lost in...

-The Times of India JALANDHAR: Punjab farmers have started sowing wheat as paddy harvesting enters the last stage with just one-fifth of the crop left to be cut in fields. Paddy stubble management, however, continues to be vexatious issue, both for the farmers and the state administration. The lack of gap between harvesting paddy and sowing wheat and increased time and high cost of operating subsidised straw management machines have left farmers...