-Outlook The Centre today decided to release a relief package of more than Rs 2,892 crore for seven states, including Maharashtra, to help them tackle the impact of Droughts, floods and landslides faced last year. The decision was taken at the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Briefing the media, Pawar said: "There were number of proposals from various states demanding central assistance...
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Maharashtra faces worst drought in 40 years -Prafulla Marpakwar
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Summer may still be a couple of months away but in 3,905 villages in 12 districts of Marathwada and western Maharashtra, faced with one of the worst Droughts since 1972, people have started migrating to Mumbai and neighbouring Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. A high-ranking bureaucrat said situation in five districts—Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed and Osmanbad—is so bad that the existing drinking water will last only till...
More »From famines to food security -Zia Haq
-The Hindustan Times In 2009, when India faced its worst drought in three decades, the country managed to produce a million more tonne of foodgrains than it did in 2007, a normal year. That's both an achievement and a failure. It's not enough to grow more food - as India has been able to do - but to distribute it well, which the country hasn't accomplished. The UPA's flagship food security bill...
More »A boon in the rural landscape: Data shows that the MGNREGA is doing more to create employment than many have argued recently -Neelakshi Mann, Varad Pande & Jairam Ramesh
-The Times of India Few government programmes are as debated in this country as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Introduced by the UPA government in 200 backward districts in 2006, and extended to the entire country by 2007-08, MGNREGA has become a fact of life in rural India; on an average around 25% of rural households seek employment under the scheme annually. In recent times, it has become...
More »"Peak farmland" is here, food crop area to fall-study
-Reuters The amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak and an area more than twice the size of France can return to nature by 2060 due to rising yields and slower population growth, a group of experts said on Monday. The report, conflicting with U.N. studies that say more cropland will be needed in coming decades to avert hunger and price spikes as the world population rises...
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