Uttar Pradesh, one of the leading rice producing states in India, is reeling, as more than half the monsoon season is over and the state has a rainfall deficit of 40 %, which has had a direct impact on paddy sowing. Other paddy growing states in the Indo-Gangetic plains have also reported deficient rainfall. How will this affect paddy production and food welfare schemes? Will there be a ripple effect on the global food supply, as India is the world's largest rice exporter? Gaon Connection tries to find answers in its new series, Paddy Pain.

Exactly two years back, on March 25, 2020, the nationwide lockdown came into force. Millions of migrant workers from rural India were stranded in cities without a place to stay, and with no food nor other means. Hundreds of thousands of them walked back home. Two years on, Gaon Connection caught up with these migrant workers and found their wounds haven't healed and their scars run deep.