-PTI NEW DELHI: The Centre has issued directives to cotton-producing states like Punjab and Haryana to ensure timely sowing of the crop and use of only recommended seeds for preventing whitefly attack, which caused significant damage to the crop last year. States have been directed to keep a close watch on the movement of whitefly and ensure timely sprinkling of pesticides to check its menace. "Union agriculture and farmers welfare ministry has issued...

-IANS NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled a seven-point strategy to double the income of farmers in six years with measures to step up irrigation, provide better quality seeds and prevent post-harvest losses. "In the past, the emphasis has been on agricultural output, rather than on farmers' incomes. I've set the objective of doubling the farmers' income by 2022," the prime minister told the Bloomberg India Economic Forum here. "I...

-The Economic Times The contiguous arid region of southern Maharashtra, Karnataka, western Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is facing a second season of severe drought, even as the rest of the country has managed to sow some crop in the October to December rabi season. Of the four states, Karnataka, with the second largest arid zone after Rajasthan, is the worst hit and has gone to the Centre seeking a bailout of...

-NDTV BEED: Gopinath Sonawane, a 52-year-old farmer from Ashti in Maharashtra’s Beed district, has been tilling his land under the scorching sun every week for four years but has little to show for his hard work. “Water supply has been extremely irregular here. Whether or not there is water, we have no choice but to work on our lands and hope for the best because what are the other alternatives?’ asks Gopinath. In...

-The Indian Express In Marathwada’s worst-hit districts of Beed, Osmanabad and Latur, households now have an uncompromising priority list of expenses as an economy hit by years of near-total crop failure goes into a tailspin. Beed/ Osmanabad: About 65 kilometres from the cracked earth that was once their source of income, Mandakini Mujmule, in her forties, and her daughter Anita, 21, have spent 16 days in Beed city’s government hospital. Mandakini has...