-TheWire.in Millions have been displaced, while a loss of crop and reduced yield are expected across the state. For the past few months, Bihar has been making headlines for many reasons. Disease outbreak, mob lynching or the state’s political affairs have seen it receive plenty of media coverage. But the state is now in the news for concurrently facing two natural disasters: drought and flood. This is not the first time that Bihar...

-Hindustan Times India’s groundwater recharge is not adequate even though drought conditions are making us extract more and more of the resource, and that the people are wasting too much water. In a report released recently, the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, the University of California, and the India Meteorological Department, Pune, said nearly 50% of the country is currently facing drought with at least 16% falling in the exceptional or...

-Hindustan Times Previous attempts to study 18th and 19th century droughts have been limited to meteorological droughts caused by failure of rains A study that reconstructed droughts and famines across India over the last 146 years says lack of moisture in the soil for extended periods of time can be linked to some of the most devastating famines. Previous attempts to study 18th and 19th century droughts have been limited to meteorological droughts...

-News18.com Acclaimed journalist and Founder-Editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P Sainath attributes the existential crisis confronting India’s agrarian society to macro-economic policies set in motion 25 years ago. Talking to Anuradha SenGupta, Sainath makes a case for state intervention in agriculture and says the Modi government, with its shifting positions and policies like demonetisation has only aggravated the assault on agrarian livelihoods. Dismissing the buzz about imminent new initiatives...

-Hindustan Times This climate impact on agriculture is a cause for worry: the sector accounts for a large share in gross domestic product (16%) and employment (49%). Poor agricultural performance can lead to high inflation, rural distress, and political restiveness, as recent rural agitations and farmer suicides have shown. An annual review by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), a wing of the agriculture ministry, has said that crops, plantations...