-Hindustan Times In Punjab, 90% of the agri produce is traded at markets regulated under the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act by licensed commission agents. Bihar abolished the APMC Act in 2006 and traders and private players can buy produce directly from farmers. Farmers in fully regulated agriculture markets in Punjab got 30% more price for their produce in 2018-19 than those in totally unregulated markets in Bihar and partially regulated...
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Govt must promote crop diversification by setting MSP for other crops as well -Manjit S Kang
-The Indian Express Farmers’ genuine concerns must be addressed as soon as possible so that they can continue producing food and fibre needed for the ever-increasing population. In the early 1960s, near-famine conditions prevailed in India and some 10 million tonnes of wheat had to be imported from the US under the PL480 programme. The country’s situation was pejoratively dubbed “ship-to-mouth” existence, as foodgrains arriving via ships were immediately consumed. In 1963, Norman...
More »MSP -- the factoids versus the facts -Reetika Khera, Sudha Narayanan and Prankur Gupta
-The Hindu The debate on agricultural issues must take into account the changed geography of procurement and the seller’s profile According to one definition, a factoid is “an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact”. After the passage of the three controversial farm Laws, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) — not mentioned in the Laws — has gained a lot of attention....
More »Minimum Floor of Dignity for Migrant Workers -Amitabh Behar
-NDTV.com blog The devastation and suffering due to the Covid pandemic is unparalleled and continues to unfold in its multiple dimensions. Amidst this colossal misery in India, the most excruciatingly vivid and heart-wrenching has been the migrant crisis triggered as a consequence of a sudden lockdown. As a nation, we witnessed the unfolding of the harrowing tragedy of migrant workers, where millions of them, particularly in our metro cities, were rendered...
More »In Punjab, the centrality of the mandi system -Shreya Sinha
-Hindustan Times The mandi has been a major rallying cry for the protests in Punjab. Its importance to agricultural life cannot be overstated The stand-off between the government and the farmers on the new farm Laws shows no signs of easing. For a long time, the government insisted that the protest was led by middlemen and large farmers only in Punjab, and to some extent Haryana, who were concerned about losing their...
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