-The Indian Express Farmer unions need to expand the scope of their advocacy. Every day, a gold miner in Russia leaves a mine with a wheelbarrow full of sand. Every day, the guard thoroughly checks the sand. On his retirement day, the guard asks the worker, “I know you have been stealing something, but can’t figure out what it is”. The worker whispers back, “I wasn’t hiding anything in the sand,...

-Moneycontrol.com At Lasalgoan market, onions were trading at Rs 41 per kg on December 10 compared with Rs 71 on December 7. Onion prices could drop by 50 percent in the next two weeks due as arrivals from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka pick up, Business Standard reports. Please click here to read more. ...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Contrary to popular perception, opting for a revenue share, as recommended by the C Rangarajan panel in 2012, instead of the practice of paying a fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane, would not have resulted in any loss for farmers. Rather, farmers would have gained Rs.8,000-9,000 crore more in the past 10 years, said Commission for Agricultural Costs and prices (CACP) Chairman Vijay Paul...

-Hindustan Times A 2001 law protects farmers’ interests. But the seeds bill neutralises many of the enabling measures granted in it There is a draft seeds bill awaiting Parliament, which seeks to replace the old Seed Act of 1966. A law regulating seed production and trade is needed to ensure that farmers are protected against spurious seeds, and that seed producers are obliged to put only seeds of good and reliable quality...

-The Indian Express The ongoing price recovery in major crops is in danger of being stymied by knee-jerk government response. A lot of analyst commentary on the latest quarterly GDP numbers for India has focused on the low growth in “nominal” terms: Gross value added (GVA) at current prices grew by just 6.3% year-on-year in July-September and 7.1% for April-September. If this first-half trend holds for the rest of 2019-20, it would...