EPW

Maharashtra continues to top the list of states with the highest number of farmers’ suicides in the country, as was revealed in Parliament by the minister for agriculture in reply to a question (Sandhu 2018). Despite the farm loan waiver announced by the state government, in the first six months of 2018, a large number of farmers’ suicides have been reported (Kakodkar 2018). Thus, Maharashtra, once famous for path-breaking innovations in agriculture as well as its trendsetting policies for agricultural and rural development, has now won repute as the worst state for farmers and land tillers, with the highest number of farmer suicides in the country so far.

State Times

India is basically an agricultural society, where around 60-70 per cent of our population is dependent on it. Past 20 years of economic reforms have brought growth in services and manufacturing sectors but contribution of agriculture has been coming down. It is now currently close to 16-17 per cent of GDP as per Government of India statistics. The interest of the society in this field is declining day by day. It is very simple to observe this change even in our locality. If we go 15 years back, I remember those days when a large number of farmers (including females and children) could be seen working in the fields growing various types of crops such as wheat, ...

The Wire

Farmers from over 400 districts across India participated in various forms of protest against the policies of the central and state governments that are causing agrarian distress. This comes in the context of a recent hike in minimum support price which the central government claimed to historically unprecedented. Yet the farmers have been upset that it fell far short of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee recommendation that had used the total cost of production including the implied rent to arrive at the MSP. There were also other demands including loan waivers, land acquisition issues and social security for farmers. The protests were organised and spearheaded by the CPIM backed All India Kisan Sabha.

The Tribune

In a bid to solve the stubble burning problem here, the Punjab Government has given nod to Mahindra Waste to Energy Solutions Ltd for setting up a bio-CNG plant in the Dera Bassi area here. “The plant will generate bio-CNG from agricultural waste to operate vehicles and generators, apart from providing organic fertiliser for cultivation. The plant will also provide additional income to farmers as the straw will be procured from them at the market price,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra. Sapra said with this plant coming into operation, all problems related to stubble burning would be solved.

The Pioneer

To keep Delhi environment clean and pollution free during winter, the Centre would provide Rs 575.18 crore to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to buy 55,622 stubble machines to farmers of these States.