-The Indian Express We have turned our back to the intense food and drinking water distress across states India has transformed spectacularly in innumerable ways in the last two decades. One of the least noted changes is in the way the country — governments, the press and people — respond to drought and food scarcities. Back in the late-1980s, many states across India were reeling under back-to-back droughts for three consecutive years, not...

-The Hindu Crop insurance has always been a knotty issue with the two previous ones, National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NIAS) of 1999 and the Modified NAIS of 2010 failing to address the concerns. Hyderabad: Agriculture scientists, NGOs and farmer leaders have picked holes in the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) touted as the much-awaited ‘suraksha kavach’ (shield) and panacea for all crop insurance related ills. Crop insurance has always been...

-DNA Widespread damage and loss of the Kharif crop in 2015 due to drought served to highlight the insecurity of the Indian farmers in the face of various challenges beyond their control: drought, hailstorms, unseasonal rains, cyclones, wild animals, epidemics and seed or technological failures, among others. Farm rights movements across the country have rubbished the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) calling it “a dressed up version of existing crop insurance...

-Livemint.com The delays in Karnataka does not portend well for six other states which have been cleared for drought relief and three more who are yet to hear from the Centre Bengaluru: Farmers in Karnataka who lost crops due to poor rains during last year’s June-September monsoon are expected to get central relief only by May this year due to delays in gathering farmers’ bank account details and logistics hurdles due...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Heavy losses in rural areas in recent elections have pushed the Narendra Modi government to re-launch its crop insurance scheme with changes to make it more farmer-friendly. The BJP has been asked to go all out to sell the scheme, renamed the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme) to emphasise Modi's central role in conceptualising it. Three senior ministers, Rajnath Singh, M. Venkaiah Naidu and...