Since the beginning of December last, 220 tenant farmers in the state have committed suicide or died of shock, crushed by mounting debts and loss of crops. Overall, the farmer death toll stands at a staggering 350-400. Though the fickle weather wreaked havoc, experts believe it's only partly to blame as several other factors have worked against the farming community. While economic expansion continues to bypass the farming community leaving...

No proposal to revise Minimum Support Price Despite demands from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, there is no proposal with the Centre to revise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) or announce any bonus for wheat, paddy and sugarcane crops. However, it is working towards a system of ensuring remunerative prices under which farmers do not require any concessions in future, according to Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad...

Every passing day makes it clear that the proposed food security law may not come by for a while. One report quoting the Planning Commission even suggested that it can be expected only in 2012. This Twelfth Plan (2012-17) launch has support from the concerned dual Ministry of Agriculture as well as Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. In that eventuality it does mean a surge in food insecurity.A dispassionate...

Agricultural Debt Wavier and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS-2008), which was introduced by the Union Government in 2008 to provide debt relief to farmers, has backfired in Chickballapur district. Under the belief that the Government would come out with a similar debt wavier/relief scheme in the future, a majority of farmers have stopped repaying fresh agricultural loans they have taken during 2008-09 and 2009-10, subsequent to the implementation of ADWDRS-2008. Thereby, many farmers,...

It is two weeks now that the state cotton federation has launched procurement but not a single farmer has turned up to sell cotton at its collection centres because of the huge gap between minimum support price and the open market rates. But Private traders are now being accused of cartelising in order to pull down prices as it has become a buyers` market. Nearly half a dozen incidents of clashes...