-The Indian Express The main problem for farmers today is not production or having sufficient crop to sell. Instead, it has to do with prices that they are getting for their produce. The Met Department has forecast a third-in-a-row “normal” south-west monsoon this year, thanks to the very low probability of an El Nino event — the abnormal warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean waters, which is known to adversely impact...
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New MSP may drive up farmer income by 24% -Dipak K Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prices available to farmers for their harvest could increase by about 15% as a result of the budget announcement to hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP), according to an estimate prepared by government’s think tank Niti Aayog. This is likely to raise the income of farmers by 24%, it has projected. While proposing three options in a draft document titled “Ensuring MSP Benefits to Farmers”, the...
More »Wholesale Price Inflation at a seven-month low of 2.48% in February
-PTI WPI inflation at 2.48% in February is the lowest in seven months. The previous low was recorded in July at 1.88% Inflation based on wholesale prices eased to a seven-month low of 2.48% in February on cheaper food articles, including vegetables. On the basis of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), inflation was at 2.84% in January, and 5.51% in February 2017. WPI inflation at 2.48% in February is the lowest in seven months....
More »Farm woes and the upcoming polls -Tushar Arora & Abheek Barua
-The Hindu Business Line An analysis of how agri concerns will play out in four poll-bound States this year has some key takeaways for politicians ‘Rural distress’ became the major economic narrative to interpret the recent Assembly elections results for Gujarat, specifically the fact that rural support for the incumbent government was considerably less than the support from cities. The woes of the rural sector could be a bigger issue this year. Of...
More »How government can double farmer incomes
-Livemint.com Farmers need structural reforms, crop diversification and greater public investment rather than subsidies and price support Indian agriculture has been relatively untouched by the structural reforms that lifted incomes in other parts of the economy. Low farm productivity meant that governments tried to improve the lot of farmers through price policy. The problem is that engineering a shift in the terms of trade through higher support prices usually leads to generalized...
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