Since the beginning of December last, 220 tenant farmers in the state have committed suicide or died of shock, crushed by mounting debts and loss of crops. Overall, the farmer death toll stands at a staggering 350-400. Though the fickle weather wreaked havoc, experts believe it's only partly to blame as several other factors have worked against the farming community. While economic expansion continues to bypass the farming community leaving...
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Two more farmers die of shock
Shock deaths of farmers continued on Wednesday as two more farmers succumbed to the pressure of lost crops and mounting debts. Nunna Prakasa Rao, who cultivated 10 acres of paddy and lost the entire crop in the unseasonal heavy rains, died of heart attack at Kovvili in Denduluru inWest Godavari. Rao was inconsolable ever since the loss and collapsed on Wednesday. He died even before medical aid could reach him....
More »Monsoon misery by TS Subramanian
Tamil Nadu: The north-east monsoon, 50 per cent in excess in the State, claims over 200 lives and destroys crops and infrastructure.A SERIES of weather systems, including a cyclone that missed Chennai narrowly, saw the skies open up over Tamil Nadu between November 4 and December 5, the period when the north-east monsoon is most active. Most of the 561 mm of rainfall that the State received between October 1...
More »Rural Poverty Report 2011
South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details) However the 2011 United...
More »Widows of farmers protest Obama visit
The cotton growers of Vidarbha, who are suffering immensely due to the prevailing agrarian crisis, staged candlelight protests ahead of US President Barack Obama's India visit on Friday. The protests, held under the banner of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti — a pressure group which has been documenting distressed farmers' suicides — sought to draw his attention to the plight of the region's agriculture sector caused by 'American policies'. The main event...
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