India, Jan. 14 -- Without empowering women in farming by recognising them as farmers and giving them land rights, agriculture can't be sustained and so can't the economy

In Maharashtra's 2019 Assembly elections, the Vidarbha constituencies presented interesting trends. The region is important politically not just for the stalwarts who contest from there, but also for the development issues it represents.

More than three lakh farmers have committed suicide in India between 1991 and 2015. Maharashtra has been affected the worst with around 15,000 farmer suicides during 2013-2018, according to data retrieved under Right to Information.

The state houses Mumbai, the country's financial hub, but suffers chronic agricultural distress resultin...