-PTI Chandigarh: Farmers in Punjab and Haryana continue to burn paddy stubble in their fields ignoring warnings by state authorities, thus posing health risks and adversely affecting soil health. Both the Punjab and the Haryana governments have imposed a ban on burning paddy residue which could lead to prosecution of erring farmers. However, reports from various parts of the two states suggest farmers still burn paddy straw despite being asked time and again...

-The Times of India RANCHI: Harsh Mander, the special commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India to advise it in the Right to Food case, met chief secretary Rajiv Gauba on Monday and asked the state government to initiate relief measures for the drought-affected farmers in the state where the Kharif crop has suffered damage due to deficit monsoon. Mander was here on his periodic visit to review and assess the...

-The Indian Express Government cannot afford to wait any longer to address the building agricultural distress. The government and the political class seem oblivious to a deepening farm crisis, resulting from back-to-back monsoon failures and falling crop prices. One indicator of the growing agrarian distress is farmer suicides, no longer a phenomenon confined to Vidarbha or Telangana. The current year has seen farmers even in states like Karnataka, Odisha and Madhya...

-The Pioneer Bhubaneswar: The increasing instances of farmers’ suicides due mainly to failure of crops and burden of loans incurred from different sources have brought traumatic shocks and a shattering blow to the farming community in Odisha and brazen shame to the present dispensation at the helm. It appears that the State administration is never worried and concerned about the agonies and tragedies of the poor cultivators. As reported, an astounding number...

-Hindustan Times Small and marginal farmers comprise 85% of the land holdings in India. Social protection is a survival tool for the rural poor, who have no easy access to wage labour. India recognised the need for social protection early on and introduced a slew of social protection programmes like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) provides 100 days of assured labour wages...