-The Indian Express   New Delhi: Unseasonal rainfall accompanied by strong winds is seen to have caused significant damage to the standing rabi crop across North and Central India, adding to the woes of Farmers already battling low price realisations and urea shortages. "These rains aren't beneficial for 90 per cent of the wheat, mustard or chana (chickpea) now in the fields. They may be useful only to the wheat that was sown...

-The Indian Express The Union budget is largely about the intentions and policies of the government of the day, as well as the arithmetic of resource mobilisation and allocation to achieve certain ends in the economy. The diagnostics of various economic problems and their probable solutions are generally found in the Economic Survey. The Economic Survey clearly indicates that growth in agri-GDP in FY15 has collapsed to just 1.1 per cent, while...

-PTI Chandigarh: Punjab government on Friday asked the Centre to reconsider its decision of stopping foodgrain procurement by FCI from Punjab, saying it will prove to be "very harmful" for the farming community and could lead to "distress selling". "The Centre's move of stopping procurement of foodgrain from states like Punjab could prove to be very harmful for state growers as they could be denied of appropriate prices of their crop (in...

-Livemint.com The transition cannot take place if India's farming-dependant population is given the choice to remain in rural hinterlands and practice agriculture Until January 2014, when the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLA) came into force, Indian Farmers were at the mercy of the colonial era Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Under the older law, the state could forcibly acquire private land under a...

-The Hindu Interview with social activist Medha Patkar on why she opposes the Land Bill proposed by the Centre Social activist Medha Patkar has been in the forefront of the struggle for the rights and rehabilitation of project-displaced populations for over two decades, and has relentlessly pursued the formulation of a national rehabilitation policy. She spoke to Gargi Parsai at the site of the agitation in Delhi about the pitfalls in the...