-The Statesman NIKHIL DEY is one of the founding members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). Since 1990, he has been a full-time MKSS activist and a member of the organisation’s decision-making collective. A leading social activist, Dey has always been involved in grassroots struggles for land and payment of minimum wages. He has also been part of the organisation’s involvement in some groundbreaking campaigns such as people’s Right to Information...

-TheWire.in Last year when the lockdown was imposed the excess stocks came in handy. But, this time around, a full-scale lockdown is unlikely, leaving the government with only four options, with each having pros and cons. While the government is busy with assembly elections in Assam, Puducherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, India’s farmers have been waiting patiently on the borders of Delhi for the repeal of three farm laws. In the...

-The Hindu The distinct characteristics of India’s Agriculture require that a reformed state must ensure farmer, consumer welfare For at least four decades now, economic policy making globally has dogmatically adhered to the notion that a progressively reduced role of the state would automatically deliver greater economic growth and welfare to the people. Since reform, by definition, is taken to mean only one thing, sector after sector is compulsively sought to be...

-Countercurrents.org More than half of rural households in India are landless, or almost so. This deprives them of the most obvious asset needed for sustainable livelihoods and food security in villages–farmland. After  Agriculture the next most important source of rural livelihood in India is dairy farming but here too the household with farmland has free access to crop residues which is increasingly not available to landless households who  have to incur extra...

-The Hindu There seems to be a shift from prioritising expressways and megaports to Agriculture and forests Environmental promises have made a visible entry into Tamil Nadu’s politics, along with a guarded valourisation of farmer and fisher rights over big-ticket infrastructure and industrial projects. All key parties in the 2021 Assembly polls barring the AIADMK dedicated a section for “environmental protection” in their manifestos. Setting aside the justified cynicism about fulfillment of...