-Firstpost.com Chandigarh: With extensive rice farming in Punjab taking an increasing toll on groundwater reserves and soil health, government agencies are now asking farmers to diversify into profitable allied trades including dairy and pig farming and fisheries. Farmers are also being asked to cultivate crops other than paddy. Farmers in different parts of the state have started growing other, more profitable crops alongside rice. In a break with the fertiliser and pesticide-driven...

-Firstpost.com Chandigarh: Two years ago, Charan Singh's tubewell ran dry just before the paddy-sowing season could start. The rice farmer, who cultivates four acres of land in the Mansa district of Punjab, had been pumping water from 45 feet below the surface. Now he had to dig another, deeper well. Like Charan Singh, 36, thousands of farmers across Punjab are astonished at the speed at which groundwater, their principal source of water...

-Hindustan Times Unless the deficit is addressed, plans to improve incomes in the farm sector are unlikely to succeed According to the 2011 census, 45% of India’s workforce is engaged in non-agricultural activities i.e. professions other than Cultivation and agricultural labour. This number diminishes by slightly more than two percentage points if one excludes two other primary sector activities: mining and plantations, forestry and fishing. Who are these workers? Which industries and...

-The Tribune Agrarian society vs a non-agrarian economy poses a huge political challenge. JUST how many farmers are there in India? This is not merely a statistical question. This is a question of policy and political significance. We have all grown up reading about India as an agrarian economy, with a majority of its population engaged in farming. Does that continue to be the case? Or has the number of farmers declined...

-Hindustan Times Profitability takes a hit as real MSPs have not risen over the years New Delhi: Most commentary around rural anger in India has been focused on either the sector’s growth performance or government spending on agriculture. Such analysis is likely to present an incomplete picture at best. Government spending on agriculture is a small fraction of the total agricultural economic output. In 2017-18, the ministry of agriculture’s spending was less...