-The Indian Express Farmers in worst-hit Beed had hoped that a good harvest this year would help them repay loans. Beed (Maharashtra): Radhabai, a 30-year-old daily wager from Ekdara village of Beed district, was plucking cotton on March 8 when the overcast sky opened up. Heavy rain with tennis ball-sized hailstones forced her to take shelter under a tree. "Heavy wind dislodged a branch of the tree that fell on her head....
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Unseasonsal rain, hailstorms trigger farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra, 18 dead -Chittaranjan Tembhekar
-The Times of India MUMBAI: The issue of farmers' suicide seems to have resurfaced with a vengeance in Maharashtra following the recent bout of unseasonal showers and hailstorms in the state. While sources working closely with the government have said that around 18 farmers have killed themselves between February 22 and March 18, social activists claim the figure could be between 80 and 100 - more than the average for every...
More »India's rice warrior battles to build living seed bank as climate chaos looms-John Vidal
-The Guardian Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste - rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had...
More »To plough a lonely furrow-Devinder Sharma
-DNA Elections 2014 are around the corner. And when elections draw nearer, the Government suddenly wakes up and thinks of its duties towards the people. This year is no exception. Whether it is the one-rank-one-pension for the retired defence personnel or the legal monthly entitlement of 5kg of wheat/rice/millet for poor households under the national Food Security Act or the announcement of a 7th Pay Commission along with a DA instalment...
More »Govt to announce relief package for farmers next week -Vishwa Mohan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre may announce relief package for farmers, who lost their standing crops in rains and hailstorm in different states, on or after March 19. Officials, who have been visiting Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan to assess the overall loss to the farmers, will submit their reports to the Centre by March 19. The announcement will, however, be made only after taking permission from...
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