State of Agriculture: Farmer suicides

Despite the Centre's promise of doubling farm income, the number of farmers committing suicide is the highest in five years

Work capacity of farm labourers in key food-producing areas to reduce with rising temperatures, shows study

Physical work capacity begins to decline around 20°C ambient temperature & further diminishes as temperature, humidity & exposure to …

Fairtrade: Study finds premium label does not always benefit workers on South African wine farms

Most of the 30 farmworkers interviewed were not even aware that the farm they worked on was Fairtrade certified

From snake charmers to agricultural labourers: A case of Haryana’s Saperas

They still carry the stigma of being a de-notified tribe; also, the law prohibits the catching of snakes now, they say

Farm income drops in 16 states and union territories

The national average income from cultivation increased by just 3.8 per cent between 2002-03 and 2012-13, when the overall farm sector grew by 3 …

Child labour on farms in Africa: It’s important to make a distinction between what’s harmful, and what isn’t

Reframing the debate about child labour in African agriculture, and how best to address it, is particularly timely

Providing the poorest landless agricultural labourers with farm tools can ameliorate their lot

An intervention carried out in Nandurbar, Maharashtra showed that the labourers earned more, in addition to increasing agricultural productivity

One farmer/farm labourer dies by suicide every hour in India: NCRB data

An emerging and worrying trend from the NCRB data was that deaths by suicide of agricultural labourers was higher than cultivators

State election results grim reminder to how deep India’s rural crisis is

The Down To Earth’s coverage in the recent past has highlighted how the agrarian crisis led to what happened to BJP in Assembly polls

Slumping potato prices hit farmers, but worse is yet to come

Farmers and cold storage owners pay the price of producing and storing bumper crops as wholesale prices dip by 39-50 per cent in December