-The Hindu Coffee cultivation is becoming an increasingly loss-making proposition in India. Already weighed down by the high cost of inputs and production as well as labour shortage, the industry is now also affected by changes in climate patterns, reports  Mini Tejaswi from Karnataka’s coffee heartland Bose Mandanna was devastated when torrential rains in September thrashed the coffee plants in his plantation and left tender berries and leaves strewn everywhere. The plants...

-The Hindu A wide variety of spices and fruits grown in the coffee field diversifies the income of tribal farmers Not too long ago, Surya Chhautia was ready to give up on a 100-acre coffee plantation in Golur village in Odisha’s Koraput district. The plantation had been lying unattended, yielding little. But today, Chhautia, 39, from the Valmiki community, is leading a campaign to add another 100 acres to the plantation and to...

-DNA When it comes to farmers, the government has precious little to offer The monsoon season is over. With 14 per cent shortfall in the amount of rains, and with nearly 39 per cent of the cropped area in the country hit by a crippling drought, I was expecting the Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan to announce a series of monetary benefits and exemptions in credit repayments for farmers....

-The Business Standard About 20% of area under crop damaged by recent cyclone in Araku valley Bangalore: Cyclone Hudhud, which left a trail of destruction in coastal Andhra Pradesh, has left its mark on coffee plantations in the Araku valley in Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha as well. The upcoming organic coffee plantations in the valley have been devastated. According to Coffee Board, about 20 per cent of the bean-bearing plants have...

-PSainath.org At least ten farmers have killed themselves every day, on average, for a straight ten years in the rich state of Maharashtra. Nation-wide the farm suicides total nears the 300,000-mark, as the data of the National Crime Records Bureau show. At least 3,146 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2013, the latest data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show. That brings the total number of farmers taking their own...