-The Indian Express M S Swaminathan, author of the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) which is better known as his panel, does not see farm loan waiver as a solution to challenges being faced by farmers. From Mandsaur to Mumbai, farmer agitations have repeatedly invoked recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission to press their demands, including waiver of loans. Political leadership across states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab...

-Livemint.com To stabilize crop prices and make them remunerative, the Swaminathan Commission proposed significant improvements in the implementation of MSPs Across the country, farmers are furious—and rightfully so. Four years ago, they helped bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power, believing Narendra Modi’s claims that they would no longer suffer official neglect. But since then, conditions in agriculture have got worse. Earlier problems have worsened as farm incomes have been squeezed...

-ThePrint.in The FM knew that the media would not spend that much of time and attention on farmers. He knew that on farmers, you need not put your money where your mouth is. I type the finance minister’s name very carefully. He is “Jaitley”, and not “Jaitlie”. I bow to India’s Parliament and note that the spelling of his name is a matter of national interest. Now I wait for Parliament to...

-TheWire.in The Swaminathan Commission was clear in its recommendations, and the rationale offered by the NITI Aayog to rule out the use of comprehensive cost is dubious at best. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in Budget 2018-19 that his “government has decided to keep MSP [minimum support price] for the all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one and half times of their production cost”. This announcement set off a flurry...

-The Indian Express Whether it is the Budget, the Swaminathan formula or the BJP manifesto, none of them has quite defined what really constitutes “cost of production”. And therein lies the nub. The Union Budget for 2018-19 has promised to fix minimum support prices (MSP) for crops to guarantee farmers at least 50 per cent returns on production costs. This is quite similar to the original recommendation of the M S Swaminathan-headed...