-Firstpost.com Ludhiana: Free meals, payment in advance, free liquor to ease aching limbs after a hard day’s work. Migrant labour in Punjab, mainly from Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, the mainstay of the state’s agriculture sector, has never had it so good. The problem, however, is the decreasing availability of this labour. Ask Baljinder Singh, a farmer with a 10-acre holding in Dakha village. Come sowing season in mid-June, Baljinder...

-Down to Earth Instead of encouraging them on paper, the government has to create a few model FPOs in the country and provide institutional support to them The Narendra Modi-led government has been tirelessly claiming that it would double farmers’ income by 2022. There is a lot of evidence to show that in the pursuance of this target, the income of farmers has not increased, but has rather stalled or decreased. Consequently,...

-The Hans India Yalal: Tribal farmers of Sangaigutta thanda in Muddaipet panchayat are making a fortune by indulging in gherkins’ cultivation under contract farming system. The farmers are earning at least Rs 50,000 in two months after deducting all expenses. The factory which encouraged the tribals to undertake contract farming supplies seeds, pesticides and fertilizers and lifts the gherkins at the farm gate by paying good price for the produce. It...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The agriculture ministry on Tuesday released the Model contract farming Act, 2018, which lays emphasis on protecting the interests of farmers, considering them as weaker of the two parties entering into a contract. The ministry says that it is a promotional and facilitative Act and not regulatory in its structure. In addition to contract farming, services contracts all along the value chain, including pre-production, production and post-production,...

-The Tribune contract farming is a much-needed vehicle to bring new crops, technologies, and markets to farmers. However, the new model Act 2018 opens up agricultural markets to contracting agencies without adequate safeguards for farmers. The first attempt at reforms in agricultural markets was made by the union government with the design of a model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act in 2003 which provided for new market channels for farmers and...