-Livemint.com New government data show India saw fewer cases of farmers taking their lives in 2018 than the year before. But this doesn’t mean rural distress is down. Much needs to be done It is tempting to relate the decline in the number of farmer suicides in 2018, as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), to an abatement in rural distress. Such a temptation should, however, be tempered. There have...

-Press release by Food and Land Use Coalition dated 10 January 2020 India can ensure healthy diets for its growing population, improve livelihoods and plug waste by adopting better food and land use practices New Delhi, January 10, 2020 – With a population projected to reach 1.5 billion people by 2030, and climate risks threatening food security, livelihoods, water supply and human health, India needs to urgently shift to sustainable food...

-The Indian Express Reform of grain management system could free up resources for infrastructure investment. With GDP growth rate plummeting to 4.5 per cent and with the agriculture GDP (GDPA) growth at 2.1 per cent in the second quarter of this fiscal year, everyone concerned with the economy is anxious. The question being asked is whether the Indian economy can be put back on the 7-8 per cent growth trajectory and can...

-PTI The government must introduce millets into diet of the mid-day meal programme to improve India''s low nutrition ranking, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday said. Speaking at a workshop on ''Energy-Water-Agriculture Nexus: Grow Solar, Save Water, Double the Farm Income'', Kant further said India needs to intensify crop diversification and public procurement must focus on very less water intensive crops. "We must introduce pulses and millets into the diet of the...

-The Indian Express The start of the sugarcane season in Maharashtra is marked by the seasonal migration of around 7-8 lakh labourers from Marathwada and North Maharashtra to the mills in various parts of the state. Pune: Maharashtra’s sugarcane crushing is all set to extend by at least a fortnight as mills complain of acute shortage of harvesting labourers. Mills say that at present around 15-20 per cent less labourers have turned...