-The Hindu Business Line This method is more productive and cost effective in agriculture, which accounts for 80% of the water consumed Water scarcity has now reached a new level in India. While severe drinking water scarcity is noticed commonly everywhere, farmers are facing a lot of difficulties in cultivating crops with reduced water availability in different regions. What is worrying is that water scarcity is expected to aggravate further in the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The changes in Odisha’s agriculture made paddy production a losing proposition, especially for the small farmers who leased in land. Substantial decline in farm income caused by exploitative land lease arrangements, denial of access to a regulated market, crop failures, increased cost of cultivation, and indebtedness pushed these farmers into severe economic hardship and an inhospitable social environment, which ultimately led to their suicides. Please click here to read more....

-The Economic Times   Forecast of a normal monsoon and extension of PM Kisan scheme likely to boost rural income, say cos.   NEW DELHI| MUMBAI: Rural demand for groceries and daily essentials, which showed signs of slowing in the past three quarters, could revive after New Delhi extended the assured income support (PMKisan) scheme for farmers. Expectations that rains would be normal this monsoon season should also lift buying power in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Extending the assured income support (PM-Kisan) scheme for farmers, approved by the new government in its first Cabinet meeting last Friday, will also benefit over eight lakh big landholders — having landholding size of 10 hectares (nearly 25 acres) and more — across the country. Though such big landholders account for merely 0.6% of total farmers in India, their numbers in some states, such as Rajasthan,...

-The Hindu Business Line 14.5 crore farmers will get Rs.6,000 annually in three equal instalments The Union Cabinet, which held its first meeting on Friday, decided to extend the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) to all farmers in the country irrespective of their landholdings. The Rs.75,000-crore PM Kisan scheme, first announced in the Interim Budget on February 1, was meant only for small and marginal farmers. According to the scheme, poor...