-Newsclick.in In 2006, chief minister Nitish Kumar scrapped the APMC Act in Bihar and the destructive effects can be seen in the seething anger amongst farmers. What the Narendra Modi government recently did through passing laws to deregulate agricultural trade, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had accomplished 14 years ago, in 2006. Soon after becoming chief minister in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he scrapped Bihar’s Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC)...
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Political Economy of Agricultural Market Reforms: Analysis of the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 -Vikas Rawal, Suvidya Patel and Jesim Pais
-Vikalp.ind.in While the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy is in doldrums, the central government, instead of taking measures to provide immediate relief to the distressed population, has used the opportunity to introduce sweeping changes in the regulatory framework of the agricultural marketing system of the country. On June 3, 2020, the Cabinet approved three ordinances. These ordinances were converted into Acts after they were passed, under...
More »Farm bills: India’s fields are on fire -Devinder Sharma
-The Telegraph The tearing hurry with which agriculture market reforms have been pushed through, without even consulting farmers, has resulted in huge farm protests in Punjab and Haryana At a time when I see euphoria among mainstream economists over the new set of agricultural reforms, media reports say that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has observed that only 12 per cent of India’s paddy cultivators were able to sell their...
More »Sonia Gandhi asks Cong.-ruled States to bring in their own farm laws
-The Hindu This will alleviate farmers from grave injustice done by Modi govt, says statement. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has directed Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Pudducherry Chief Ministers to explore the possibility of passing laws to override the three agricultural laws passed recently by Parliament. A statement issued by party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said that these States have been told to pass laws under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution that...
More »The men behind APMC, MSP and procurement -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The idea of a Minimum Support Price for crops came first from a visiting US soil scientist and fertiliser expert The institution of ‘mandis’ is as old as markets where wholesale trading in primary produce has been taking place since time immemorial. APMCs or Agricultural Produce Market Committees are of more recent vintage and the creation of Sir Chhotu Ram. In 1939, the legendary farmer leader, as Development Minister in...
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