-The Indian Express Agriculture education is in a poor state. ICAR must be revamped Although autarky on Indian farms is a distant dream, as the 71st year of Independence dawns, penury-ridden Farmers are still committing suicide by the thousands— a consequence of decades of short-sightedness, while economists and scientists are still equating food sufficiency to Farmer sustainability. The occasion merits introspection on the core issues of Farmers’ distress. We must begin at the...

-PTI Researchers claimed that the compensation under MGNREGA was delayed either by the Centre or the state governments in almost half of the 92 lakh cases it studied New Delhi: Researchers claimed on Friday that the compensation under MGNREGA was delayed either by the Centre or the state governments in almost half of the 92 lakh cases it studied. The outcomes of an ongoing study were shared at a press conference called...

-PTI New Delhi: Foodgrain output in the ongoing 2017-18 kharif season is likely to surpass last year’s record of 138.04 million tonnes due to higher acreage and a good monsoon for the second straight year, Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak said today. So far, more than 80 per cent of the sowing of kharif crops — paddy, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and jute — has been completed and planting will continue in...

-The Times of India blog A reply by Water Resources minister Uma Bharti  to a Lok Sabha question on groundwater depletion foregrounds tough trade-offs facing India’s policymakers. According to Bharti, an assessment of groundwater resources and usage showed that 16% of 6,584 assessment units in India are “overexploited.” A table which accompanies her reply provides state-wise data. Here, Punjab stands out for the magnitude of overexploitation. If 16% of assessed units in India...

-The Indian Express They are on the roads and in the fields. Farmers are worried, as are MLAs. 13 years after its anti-cow slaughter Act, Madhya Pradesh struggles with stray cows Nestled along a rocky hillock in Tikamgarh, this small village of about a thousand residents follows a fixed ritual at twilight. Before retiring for the day, the men of Dumbar herd cows wandering in the village’s lanes into a makeshift enclosure,...