-The Economic Times Farmers are agitated. Loan waivers have not stemmed protests or farmer suicides. This is a multidimensional problem and also a huge political opportunity for parties that can think constructively. Waiving loans is bad policy. It adds to the fiscal stress of states, straining under the electricity utility debt they have taken over. The states would undo the Centre’s hard-wrought fiscal discipline, scaring rating agencies. Waived loans bring little benefit to...

-Deccan Chronicle The slogan was that there would never again be scarcity of food because we can now make “bread from air”. There are two distinct futures of food and farming. One leads to a dead end. A dead planet: poisons and chemical monocultures spreading; Farmers committing suicide due to debt for seeds and chemicals; children dying due to lack of food; people dying because of chronic diseases spreading due to nutritionally empty, toxic...

-Livemint.com States like Bihar and Kerala did not deposit their share of insurance premium on time, delaying payments to Farmers, says agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh New Delhi: Due to states delaying assessment of crop loss, settlement of claims under the centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme is getting delayed, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Wednesday. The minister also complained that some states like Bihar and Kerala did not deposit their...

-The Hindu Leading hydrogeology scientist explains how India’s dependence on groundwater could lead to a crisis if left unchecked Mumbai: Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material, supplying and sustaining a range of human activity. Yet, because it is invisible and it’s supply often taken for granted, it is often inadequately acknowledged in policy and debates about the preservation of groundwater commons and aquifers. At best, it is usually shrouded in...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: Karnataka has seen a poor monsoon so far, with two districts in the Cauvery basin receiving scanty rain. In 18 other districts, including Bengaluru Urban and Rural, it has been deficient. This makes the next 20 days crucial as they will decide whether the state can escape another drought year. On Monday, Farmers from Halebudanuru village in Mandya district held a meeting with government officials demanding that...