-Business Standard Nabard-Icrier study calls for moving high-water reliant crops like sugarcane in Maharashtra, rice in Punjab to other areas; Gadkari says not possible. With India staring at a looming water crisis, a new study on ‘water productivity mapping of major crops’ has called for putting a price on water used for irrigation to at least recover operating and maintenance costs of structures like canals. It has also called for an end...

-NABARD-ICRIER Report, June 2018 India is facing a major challenge on the water front. Its per capita water availability of 1544 cubic meters per year, as reported in 2011, has already fallen below the cut off point of 1700 cubic meters, placing it among the water stressed nations of the planet. This situation is likely to have worsened since 2011 and may continue to do so unless drastic reforms are undertaken...

-Livemint.com Currently water guzzling crops like paddy and sugarcane, which use up to 60% of available irrigation water, are cultivated in some of the most water scarce regions in the country, says the study New Delhi: India needs to realign regional cropping patterns with available water resources to ensure future sustainability of food production, a study released on Thursday said. Currently water guzzling crops like paddy and sugarcane, which use up to...

-GoIMonitor.com The villagers getting management rights under the Forest Rights Act can inspire others “First came the forest, followed by the people, and then the government. Does this chronology allow the newest entrant in the scheme to determine the relationship between the two older entities? In other words, does the new regime of community forest resource bequeath rights or is it merely a recognition of unalienable rights already vested in the communities living...

The country’s agrarian sector in the last financial year expanded at almost half the rate at which it grew in 2016-17, shows the recently released provisional estimates by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). As compared to a growth rate of 6.3 percent witnessed in 2016-17, the growth rate in real Gross Value Added (GVA) by the agrarian sector (i.e., increase in agricultural GVA after neutralizing the effect of price inflation)...