-Newsclick.in At least 45 farmers have killed themselves since the lockdown began, said farmers’ body Rythu Swarajya Vedika. About 70% of farmers who committed suicides during the lockdown period in the last two months are tenant farmers cultivating crops in 5 to 20 acres of agricultural land, a study conducted by Telugu daily Eenadu has revealed. Besides difficulties related to crop procurement, the study found that loss of crops, financial distress related...
More »SEARCH RESULT
COVID-19 Lockdown: Impact on Agriculture and Rural Economy -Vikas Rawal, Manish Kumar, Ankur Verma and Jesim Pais
-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...
More »Will Indian Agriculture Come out Relatively Unscathed in FY'21? -Siraj Hussain and Jugal Mohapatra
-TheWire.in The outlook for kharif 2020 contains a few good signs, but much will depend on the monsoon. Since the harvesting of most rabi crops was completed in time, despite the nationwide lockdown from March 24 onwards, an impression has gained ground that all is well with Indian agriculture. It is true that due to extraordinary efforts made by government machinery, procurement of wheat in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh has been more...
More »Enough with the lofty rhetoric. It’s time to let the money do the talk -Himanshu
-Livemint.com Slogans, vision statements and acronyms are unlikely to be of any help to those in distress As the details of the mega fiscal package of ₹20 trillion announced by the prime minister are slowly being revealed by the finance minister (FM), it is increasingly becoming clear that it has less to do with the immediate crisis of lives and livelihood and more to do with the long-term agenda of reforms and...
More »Small Farmers, Big Crisis, and SMS is no Solution, Say Farm Leaders -Afzal Imam
-Newsclick.in The lockdown has got the government talking about agri ‘reforms’ again, but the exploitation of India’s weakest farmers continues unchecked. It is a cruel irony that in the sixth week of the nationwide lockdown, the government is talking up omnibus agriculture “reforms” as if they can mitigate the growing distress in rural India. Reforms, no doubt, implies stricter compliance with online registration and payment rules, more focus on market-based pricing, and...
More »