-Down to Earth The Centre had announced a scheme in the 2018-19 budget to upgrade rural haats so that small farmers could get fair prices for their produce It has been two years since an ambitious programme to convert 22,000 rural haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs) was launched. But only 1,251 have come up till now. This is barely six per cent of the target. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told...

-Newsclick.in Farmer leaders cut up as Centre has not yet tried to open up dialogue on remaining demands with the 5-member committee. New Delhi: After a day-long meeting at the Singhu Border, the core committee of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Monday said that farmers’ leaders had so far received only verbal assurances from the Union government and it remained non-committal on any written statement for withdrawal of criminal cases and...

-Newslaundry.com Given that the issue is so political, all nuance has gone out of the window. A deepdive on what the demand actually means for the government and farmers. In her new book Cogs and Monsters—What Economics is and What It Should Be, the British economist Diane Coyle uses the word nuance thrice. She writes that “politics and nuance are strangers”. And that “the eye of the public is caught, by confident statements...

-TheNewsMinute.com Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advocacy of Zero Budget Natural Farming comes after the controversial farm laws were repealed. But further critical examination is crucial. In a televised address to the nation on the morning of November 19th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought forgiveness from farmers and the entire nation “with all sincerity of purpose and from the bottom of my heart” for aggressively and undemocratically promoting three controversial farm laws. He...

-Livemint.com We do need reforms to make farming remunerative again but it will take a truly participatory effort On 19 November, in a sudden announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of three contentious farm laws passed by Parliament last September. And they were repealed on the very first day that the House convened for its winter session. Like the way they were passed last year, the repeal was also done...