-The Financial Express How can the cotton and soybean farmers of Vidarbha and Marathwada supplement their incomes so they can get out of the trap of debt and self-engineered death? That was the theme of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s ninth edition, four-day agricultural exhibition at Nagpur, called Agrovision, to which I was invited.  A promising beginning has been made. In October last year, the National Dairy Development Board commenced operations. It...

-The Indian Express The protesting farmers from various states across India are demanding implementation of Swaminathan Committee's recommendations, lower input costs, farm loan waiver and fair price for farm produce among other things. New Delhi: Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav on Tuesday said that the “prevailing agrarian crisis in the country is not by accident but is policy and politics driven”. Speaking to indianexpress.com during a farmers’ protest in the national capital,...

-Down to Earth More than 180 farmer organisations from across the country proposed Bills related to debt waiver and fair crop prices in a mock parliament  On the second day of a protest organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), farmers from more than 180 farmer organisations across the country proposed a bill each on debt waiver and fair prices for crops. For two days, thousands of farmers had gathered...

-The Indian Express Union government must address structural issues in agricultural policy, allow states greater autonomy. Farmers from across the country are out on Delhi’s streets agitating just as the deliberations for the 2018 budget are beginning and it’s time to seek solutions to the structural issues that plague the system. The “one-size-fits-all” policy created for the farm sector is self-destructive in design and programmes meant to double farmer incomes are collapsing. The...

-National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)   This policy brief, developed by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, to address the roblem of air pollution due to crop residue burning, provides an innovative viable solution to check burning of rice residues, which is a major contributor to air pollution in the early winter months in North-West plains of India. The Academy hopes that the Central and State Governments of the affected States...