-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Jaidev Mahto, 65, mortgaged 2.5 acres of land to repay a bank loan of Rs 25,000. A resident of Bardaha village in Dhanbad district, Mahato had taken the loan against his Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for Kharif crops that were damaged completely due to scarcity of rainfall this year. Hemant Singh, 50, a farmer of Pyraguri village in East Singhbhum district, took a KCC loan of Rs 28,000 for...

-Business Standard Most homes not getting enough to eat; resorting to sending children for work, distress sale of any cattle; call for comprehensive relief without delay A little more than a third of the 100-odd drought-hit villages in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh have recorded at least one death due to hunger or malnutrition in the past eight months. And, about two-thirds of households often did not get two square meals in...

Agricultural insurance is supposed to protect farmers from financial hardships and risks when crop losses and damage takes place due to extreme weather events such as drought, cyclone, hailstorms, flood etc. However, in reality this does not hold true in India. Due to the failure of crop insurance schemes in India, there has been a deepening of agrarian crisis and rural distress in the recent times, particularly in the backdrop of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With back to back drought years putting farmers under tremendous stress, the Centre believes it's effort to bolster irrigation infrastructure and disburse relief to farmers after extreme weather events are falling short thanks to some states dragging their feet. Union agriculture ministry in its periodic review of these schemes found many states not up to the mark with minister Radha Mohan Singh asking them to pull...

-Hindustan Times The impact of climate change on India’s agriculture is more evident than ever before, but millions of small and marginal farmers do not have adequate safeguards, said a study released on Friday. The country’s farm sector is considered highly vulnerable to shifts in weather patterns as half of the cropland is dependent on rainfall, drawing around 60% of the farmers to the core of the climate-proofing debate. Climate change increases frequency...