Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil from Maharashtra is a veteran Congress leader and a former minister, whose father, Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, too was a Congressman and minister. When Radhakrishna’s son, Sujay Vikhe Patil, left the Congress party and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 12 this year — to contest the Lok Sabha elections… Read More »

If there is one crop that affects India’s economy, water supply and promotes nepotism, it is sugarcane. India was the first country in the world where sugarcane farming — and the first refined sugar — was born more than 2,000 years ago. In fact, the word “sugar” has its origins in Sanskrit, Shaakara. India is the… Read More »

Pre-monsoon rainfall from March to May has seen a deficiency of 22 per cent, according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Maharashtra has also witnessed only five per cent of the normal pre-monsoon rainfall this year in March and April. This phenomenon plays a significant role in agriculture in several parts of the country. Overall, 75.9… Read More »

Indian sugar exports continue to lag behind the government’s 5 million mt target for the current marketing year, on the back of weakening global prices, making it unattractive for local mills to export. Sugar exports from October 1, 2018 to May 13, 2019 stood at 2.13 million mt, according to data from the All India… Read More »

With just 322.44 million cubic metres (MCM) of live water storage left as against gross storage capacity of 7,414 MCM of Ukai reservoir, farmers, who have sugar cane crops in nearly one lakh hectare area in South Gujarat, face a bleak  future.