-Down to Earth Despite the rural hinterland being in the throes of agrarian distress, the incumbent coalition has won handsomely in these very areas The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has beaten all odds to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among these odds was the agrarian crisis that rural India is currently in the throes of. Since 2014, the country has suffered two major droughts and 850-odd...

-The Indian Express Across these regions, where mitigation measures to tackle a grave water and fodder scarcity had barely begun during the election campaign, BJP leaders had run a campaign almost entirely on issues of national security, the Pulwama attack and the Balakot airstrike. Mumbai/ Pune: Shrugging off the impact of a crippling drought, anger at slow drought relief measures and years of poor price realisations for most major farm produce,...

-The Hindu Say policymakers induce farmers to adopt incongruent crop pattern, causing water crisis Pune: The water crisis in Maharashtra is a “policy-induced failure”, according to economists and water academics who have specifically warned of the ‘desertification’ of the parched Marathwada region in the near future. “It is the ecological illiteracy of policy-makers and the selfishness of the power elite in inducing farmers across Marathwada to adopt a crop pattern that is not...

-Economic and Political Weekly This article summarises the scenario of migration of sugar cane harvesting workers from Beed, a drought-prone district from Marathwada region, Maharashtra. Seasonal and distressed migration of the sugar cane harvesting workers, which happens to be the most vulnerable section of the sugar industry in Maharashtra, remains a largely overlooked arena in scholarly discussions as well as policy circles. Hence this article, based on a study conducted by...

-The Hindu Business Line Output next season may see a steep fall Pune: The sugarcane cultivation in Maharashtra is likely to decline due to drought in 26 districts in the state. The State government is collecting the data of cane cultivation and according to sources the decline in cane cultivation will have a drastic impact on sugar production. Primary estimates show that production in the next season might be reduced to just...