-The Hindu Business Line The Indian wheat situation is turning worrisome, not because of the over-optimistic production estimate released by the Ministry of Agriculture recently, but because of the current price levels that provide no encouragement to farmers. Fraught with possibilities, the wheat may go the pulses way. The policy-makers may soon be forced to impose import restrictions in the form of higher tariffs. Output, prices To start with, no one in the trade...

-The Indian Express Schemes to ensure that farmers get fair returns will come a croppper unless trade and tariffs are synced with minimum support prices. With farm prices of several commodities falling way below their minimum support prices (MSPs) in 2016-17 and 2017-18, farmers have been under increasing stress. The Centre and several state governments are searching for ways and means to support farmers. In his recent address (Mann ki Baat), the...

-Livemint.com Linking MSPs to a multiple of costs and ignoring other dynamics, such as demand and global prices, risks creating distortions and disincentivizing productivity Government policymaking seems to be making a volte-face from supporting consumers (by keeping food inflation low), to supporting producers (by raising food prices). In the 2018-19 Union budget, the government “decided to keep minimum support prices (MSP) for all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one-and-a-half times of...

-The Indian Express For farmers like Bhawane, it’s not the promised MSPs, but the prices for the chana and tur/arhar (pigeon-pea) they would be selling in the next fortnight or so that’s the real concern. Latur: Dhananjay Bhawane has little hope of the standing chana (chickpea) crop on eight out of his 10-acre field fetching anywhere near the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 4,400 per quintal, when it is...

-Livemint.com While trade policy is skewed against farmers, rural schemes lag behind targets, say the organizations New Delhi: The Union government has overlooked the spectre of rural distress and gone back on its promises to ensure remunerative returns to farmers, several farmer organizations claimed on Tuesday while releasing a paper on the state of Indian agriculture, ahead of the Union budget. Titled Green Paper on Farmers, Farming and Rural Economy 2018, the document...