-The Hindu Business Line Surpasses last year’s area for the first time New Delhi: The area under cultivation in the current rabi season for the first time this week surpassed that of corresponding period last year, according to the data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday. The total acreage under the rabi this year stood at 514.22 lakh hectares (lh), a marginal 1 per cent rise from 509.12 lh during the same...

-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-The Times of India Kishore Tiwari has been taking up the cause of the farmers since several years. Farm suicide in the cotton-district of Yavatmal came into focus due to his persistent efforts of continuously informing the media. After the BJP came into power in Maharashtra, Tiwari was roped in as chief of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Samiti (VNSSM), a state government think-tank on agriculture. He feels it is time to reduce...

-The Hindu Business Line Only crops to have registered an increase in area under cultivation were cotton and sugarcane New Delhi: The shortfall in sowing of oilseeds and pulses has continued to bring down the total area under cultivation during the current kharif season as compared to the previous year. Farmers across the country have so far covered only 1,013.83 lakh hectares (ha) by end of this week as compared to 1,019.6 lakh...

-The Hindu Business Line 10 meteorological subdivisions reeling from rainfall deficit New Delhi: Deficient rains in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana seem to have hit kharif sowing this year with the total area covered coming down for the first time from the corresponding period last year. The total sown area during the ongoing kharif season had dropped to 976.34 lakh hectares (ha) by the end of the week, against 984.57 lakh...