India Insight: Monsoons, cotton farming and more
Despite years of planning and investment, agriculture in India continues to depend heavily on monsoon. The monsoon arrived late this year, and is progressing slowly, running up a deficit of 23 per cent till last week. Maharashtra has managed to irrigate barely 0.1 per cent of land in the last decade despite spending nearly Rs 70,000 crore. Any change in the monsoon pattern adversely affects farm output, leading to a spike in food prices and hitting rural incomes.
