-The Indian Express Subsidy for crop insurance is preferable to fertiliser, power or farm credit. But Centre should bear the full cost for the scheme. A well-conceived and pro-farmer crop insurance scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — is faced with the prospect of going the fertiliser subsidy way. Just as in the latter’s case, the benefits from subsidy on crop premiums, too, seems to be going primarily...

-The Indian Express The first cattle camp of the 2018-2019 drought opened unusually early on January 1, long before the advent of the summer, and is already home to over 7,000 animals who will live at the camp until the Monsoon arrives. Mhaswad (Satara, Maharashtra): THEIR JERSEY cows and Murrah buffaloes now their lifeline in a worsening drought, 1,400 families from villages in Satara’s Maan taluka have moved with their animals...

-Livemint.com Even as debt waivers and farmer-centric doles are announced to tide over farmers’ indebtedness, the level of investment in irrigation remains poor Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the spotlight has turned on the troubles faced by the farmer. But, even as debt waivers are announced to tide over one farm crisis—that of indebtedness—another crisis—of water scarcity—looms large. Over the past three months, five large states— Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,...

-Livemint.com Delayed assessment of loss and settlement of claims by insurance companies may have led to farmers losing faith in Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, say analysts New Delhi: Sharad Markad, a lanky teenager from a marginal farming family in Maharashtra, spent the first day of 2019 scrounging for funds. Faced with a drought, the third in the past five years, Markad had taken it upon himself to build a community cattle...

-The Hindu A majority of men in Bogidari in Chirang district have worked at some point in Meghalaya’s coal mines BOGIDARI: Mohammad Hussain Sheikh recalls how a letter from the sirdar (manager and mine supervisor) of a Meghalaya coal mine in 2002 had helped him heave a big sigh of relief. It simply read: “You are hired. Come before the season starts in a few days.” Mr. Sheikh, now 48, was desperate...