-TheHansIndia.com The ongoing drought is fuelling distress migration from districts in Telangana, a trend that was witnessed in the early 2000s. The severe drought conditions for the second consecutive year have led to crop failure, mounting debts, chronic unemployment and failure of the NREGA scheme, especially in the districts of Mahbubnagar, Medak, and Adilabad, forcing large-scale exodus of farmers and others.   The fruits of a people’s movement and the world’s largest anti-poverty...

-Livemint.com Spending on irrigation, crop insurance to be doubled; e-platform to be developed for farm produce New Delhi: The government is set to double annual spending on irrigation and crop insurance, and develop a national digital platform for farm produce in order to ensure better prices for farmers, as part of a push to reduce rural distress following the first back-to-back drought in India in three decades. “We’re expecting that the new...

-Economic and Political Weekly Abhijit Sen (abhijitsenjnu@gmail.com) retired recently from the faculty of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University; he has also been a Member of the Planning Commission and then of the Fourteenth Finance Commission. Indian Agriculture is once again in a slowdown. After the spurt of 2004-05--2011-12 when growth accelerated and the variability of production declined, in recent years growth has slowed and volatility has risen....

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers’ incomes are too inadequate for actuarial premium rates to work for them The farm crisis in India continues unabated, proving all the governmental nostrums ineffective. Unfortunately, the new crop insurance scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — recently cleared by the Union Cabinet, to be implemented from the kharif crop cycle beginning this June, too, is unlikely to bring in any significant relief to...

-Hindustan Times Khargone (MP): At a time when the Agriculture sector is in distress and farmer suicides have become common, a group of farmers from Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone are making use of social media network to practice modern farming, ensure best prices for their produce, and also prevent crop failure. The group – comprising more than 50 farmers – uses WhatsApp and Facebook to not only stay connected, but also to keep...