Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | It's a fact. We don't want farmers to get rich -Zia Haq

It's a fact. We don't want farmers to get rich -Zia Haq

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Sep 22, 2019   modified Modified on Sep 22, 2019
-Hindustan Times

India’s obsession with keeping food prices low, even when there’s no inflationary pressure, has long hurt farm incomes

Farming is gloriously uncertain, thanks not just to uncertain weather, but also unpredictable policies. Let’s zoom into the finances of Bhupinder Pal Singh, a horticulturist from Babbain, a village in Haryana, a state that counts itself among the first places where India’s Green Revolution of 1960s began.

In good years, Singh would earn enough revenue to get by from his potato farm ringed by tall eucalyptus trees and bushy greens on the edge of a village inhabited mostly by fellow Sikh farm households. To top up his farm income, he also rents a mango orchard owned by a relative who is an army veteran.

In the summer of 2017, his tuber was ready for harvest on time. The prevailing market rates, however, delivered a jolt. He was unable to sell a third of his 4,400 quintals (100 kg each) of potato harvest in May of that year. The unsold produce soon began to melt into a mountain of rotten slush.

Singh had said, when this correspondent visited his farm that year, he lost all hope when he managed to sell 40 quintals for just Rs 2,306 to a local trader, meaning he got a mere Rs 57.65 for 100 kgs. It was clear he would incur far more costs transporting his produce to the nearest market than what he would be earning by disposing of the stocks.

Singh had no idea why the markets had crashed without warning. It turns out the seeds of the 2017 potato crisis had been sown in 2014. It had to do with a knee-jerk farm trade policy that tends to clamp down on exports at the slightest hint of rising domestic prices.

In June 2014, to rein in a spike in potato prices, the government had imposed a minimum export price (MEP) on potatoes, put the commodity under the Essential Commodities Act and also allowed duty-free imports.

MEP is a price floor set by the government under the Foreign Trade Act, 1992. It is designed to make a commodity expensive for foreign buyers. Such MEPs force exporters of a particular item to quote higher than globally prevailing prices to prospective buyers. This means importers elsewhere looking to buy Indian produce would not be willing to buy for such a high price (mandated artificially of course by a government fiat). They would instead look for markets where the item would be cheaper.

Please click here to read more.

Hindustan Times, 20 September, 2019, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-s-obsession-with-low-food-prices-continues-to-hurt-farm-incomes-opinion/story-AInKO6vGdBNIBUHIdrr6UJ.html


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close