To help distressed farmers, the state government constituted a debt relief tribunal. The commission, for which a law was passed three years ago, had been in cold storage but has been revived now. The delay makes the seriousness of the state government evident, with two of the five commission members’ posts still remaining vacant. Farmers with landholdings below five acres of dry land or 2.5 acres of wet land come into its ambit.

https://thewire.in/agriculture/ground-report-why-farmer-suicides-in-telangana-continue-unabated

The state’s agriculture department has pegged the extent of loss at 1.20 lakh acres. This includes 80,447 acres of paddy, 35,610 acres of cotton and 4,022 acres of maize.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/telangana-farmers-in-trouble-after-unseasonal-rains-destroy-crops-67643

The sea has encroached eight kilometres into the land, according to Kakinada’s older generation. New technologies like geo tubes were able to arrest erosion. However, the structures themselves have become denuded over time.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/kakinada-fishers-grapple-with-pollution-climate-change-and-unemployment-67383

While official sources in the agriculture department said that between 2014 and 2019, the actual number of suicides is 1,160, data provided by the Union agriculture minister says that between 2014 and 2016, there were 2,352 suicides.

https://thewire.in/rights/andhra-pradesh-farm-suicides-compensation

With rivers like Krishna, Godavari, Tungabhadra and Penna and a coast line of 974 kilometres the state is rich in sand resources. The previous TDP regime had introduced a free sand policy, which though was billed pro-poor is said to have boosted the mining mafia.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/mining/andhra-pradesh-unveils-new-sand-policy-66550

The law doesn’t say anything about how a tenant farmer will be identified and given loans. There are around 15 lakh tenant farmers, according to official estimates, out of which a little more than five lakh were issued tenancy cards by the TDP government. Most belong to the Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities, and rely almost entirely on agriculture for livelihood.

https://thewire.in/agriculture/new-andhra-pradesh-cultivators-act-unlikely-to-solve-tenant-farmers-problems

While the project claims that there will be zero liquid discharge, Babu Rao says this is “a myth”. “Why can’t these companies demonstrate their green technologies in the already polluted Bollaram, Jeedimetla and Patancheruvu industrial clusters in and around Hyderabad?” he asks.


https://thewire.in/rights/hyderabad-pharma-city-protest-watered-down-laws