-Frontline A noteworthy study that provides much-needed insights into the nature and severity of the farm crisis in Punjab. There have been many studies on agrarian distress and farmer suicides in different parts of India in the last decade, including in Punjab. Most of the studies focus on a profile of the victims, mostly landowning farmers, and reasons thereof, with a sample of such farmers. In this context, this book makes a...

-Down to Earth Severe dry spells in Indian forests have hit the livelihood of more than 100 million people. But India simply does not acknowledge this drought For more than five months, residents of Jabarra village have been foraging the forests for minor forest produce (MFP). The forest in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district is abundant with more than 200 types of forest produce and the district is known as Asia’s biggest trading...

-Frontline The inability to resolve pressing problems with respect to the production, distribution and availability of food is one of the important failures of the entire economic reform process. IN the fateful month of July 1991, when the devaluation of the Indian rupee presaged the introduction of a whole series of liberalising economic reforms, agriculture was very far from the minds of most policymakers and commentators. The immediate focus was on...

-Livemint.com Govt’s plan to cover 80% farmers falling apart as banks have disbursed loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the kharif season Mumbai: Maharashtra government’s plan to cover 80% of the state’s 13.7 million farmers under institutionalised crop credit in 2016-17 seems to be falling apart. By 30 June, a large network of public, private and district co-operative banks had disbursed Crop Loans to only 3.1 million farmers in the...

-The Hindu Cooperative societies will get the amount in a phased manner Chennai: Pursuant to the announcement made by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on the waiver of agricultural loans availed by small and micro farmers from cooperative banks, the State government has issued specific guidelines to be followed while implementing the waiver. According to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), the scheme would be applicable to entire outstanding principal, interest, penal interest and all...