-Down to Earth Cattle ranchers sold milch cows at throwaway prices after incurring losses of about Rs 3 lakh in 5 months   Mangatram Aane  from Lokra village in Haryana’s Gurugram district had hopes of good income when he left his job with Hero Honda 15 years ago and started dairy farming.  Initially, he fetched a good money from dairy farming, then he  became a veterinary doctor. He felt that dairy farming had...

-Deccan Herald One must not make the mistake of thinking that high food prices are good for farmers The world has been facing a food crisis of a magnitude that has not been seen for many decades. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned that “the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support continues to grow at an...

-TheWire.in The crisis is well known and has been written about for decades now. Government intervention has taken place but little has changed. The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra consists of eleven districts: Akola, Amravati, Washim, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gadchiroli and Gondia. As of 2012, 65% of the population living in this region was solely dependent on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood and vocational needs. This is due to...

-The Hindu Health workers need better remuneration and safety guarantee, not just awards Recognition very often goes to those at the top of the pecking order, and stays there. Credit seldom trickles down to the worker at the bottom. The World Health Organization’s act of recognising India’s ASHA (accredited social health activists) and the polio workers of Afghanistan is an attempt to right that wrong. It is a rare, and commendable doffing...

-Newsclick.in Agri expert Devinder Sharma says today, as in the past, commodity trading, massive speculation and unfair terms of trade are behind rising food prices. As India battles food price inflation, Devinder Sharma, a well-known trade and agriculture expert, explains why Indian policymakers should boost farm incomes to revive the economy. “If farmers, comprising 50% of the country’s population, were to receive a higher income through a guaranteed MSP, it would create...