-Livemint.com The prospect of weak monsoon is never good news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by unseasonal rainfall, and a spate of farmer suicides The prospect of a sub-normal monsoon is never good news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by being rained on at the wrong time, and a spate of farmer suicides. The only option is...

-The Times of India In the 21st century, why does the forecast of a deficient monsoon send the same ripple of fear through India as it would 5,000 years ago? The short answer is that for almost 40% of the population, Agriculture has not changed — it is still dependent on the "rain god", or the South-West monsoon as it is known today. Here are the facts: about 46% of India's net...

A recent press release from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the area affected by recent rains and hailstorms is estimated to be 189.81 lakh hectares (on 24 April 2015), which is nearly double the total area affected that was earlier estimated on 16 April 2015. (See the link below). Experts argue that such extreme weather events may severely damage food economy of the nation, apart from breaking the spirit...

-The Economic Times BENGALURU: To fend off an agrarian crisis similar to the one sweeping across parts of north India and prevent farmer suicides, Karnataka has begun to implement a scheme to monsoon-proof the farmer that could turn out to be a national solution. About 35,000 farmers across the state's 175 taluks are implementing the pilot programme by setting up polythene-lined water storage ponds in their fields to prevent water seep age...

-Tehelka In these times of agrarian distress, NK Bhoopesh revisits the ‘revolution’ that changed Indian Agriculture The growing number of farmer suicides across the country has punched holes in the dominant narrative of India’s rise as a global economic power articulated ad nauseum by big business, mainstream politicians and the corporate media. It has also put a question mark on another familiar tale: that the green revolution introduced in the 1960s was...