-Business Standard Farmers are not getting enough protection as states mostly do not pay the premium they should With the rains falling in abundance and tomatoes refusing to do so, agriculture economy experts have a lot to say on what both mean for the sector.   Both pose a risk to farmers — of floods and of lack of pricing power. Yet the farmers don't have much to fend those off since agricultural insurance...

-The Hindu BJP lists ‘pro-farmer’ steps; govt. blind to problems: Digvijaya Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha sought to corner the Centre on the issue of agrarian crisis on Tuesday, accusing it of floating policies that were detrimental to farmers’ interests. However, defending the Narendra Modi government, members from the BJP and its allies hailed the “pro-farmer” initiatives taken under his leadership. Prabhat Jha, Parshottam Rupala, Ram Narain Dudi, Sanjay Raut and La....

-The Hindu Strengthening the repayment capacity of farmers by improving and stabilising their income is the only way to keep them out of distress Indian agriculture is characterised by low scale and low productivity. About 85% of the operational landholdings in the country are below 5 acres and 67% farm households survive on an average landholding of one acre. More than half of the area under cultivation does not have access to...

-Hindustan Times The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s new certification regulation is going to hinder the growth of the sector. Instead of targeting small farmers, why not make laws that require mandatory labelling of foods grown with pesticides, chemicals or GMO etc? The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently announced the Draft Food and Standards (Organic Food) Regulations, 2017, aimed at curbing sale of fake organic...

-Livemint.com Crop insurance has failed to provide much-needed relief to farmers from destitution With one farmer committing suicide every half-an-hour, the number of farmers who have ended their lives as per official records in India is estimated at over 300,000 over the past two decades. These numbers do not include suicides by agricultural labourers, though they too are victims of the agrarian crisis. As each death affects at least the immediate family...