-The Indian Express In the absence of patience and vision, the loan waiver remains the most favoured response to farm distress Thousands of farmers from different parts of India marched to Delhi on November 29-30 to register their protest against the Narendra Modi government’s perceived apathy and neglect of farmers’ demands. They were basically demanding three things: One, debate in Parliament to discuss farm distress; two, one-time loan waiver; and three,...

-The Hindu With farm distress becoming a major electoral issue in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Vikas Pathak visits two pockets of rural India, Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and Jodhpur district in Rajasthan, and finds that the political instincts of the rural voter are not necessarily rooted in agriculture. A few farmers sit huddled near a statue of Sardar Patel at Balaguda village in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh pouring out...

-The Hindu 'Will take up their genuine demands with govt.’ The BJP’s Kisan Morcha has invited farmers’ groups across the country for a dialogue on rural distress after several marches and agitations by them in the last year or so, with Morcha chief Virendra Singh Mast conceding that loan waivers were a “temporary solution” to what ails the farm sector. At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Mast said: “I had invited...

-Newslaundry.com Quick fixes like loan waivers and MSPs don’t solve the basic problem. On December 2, 2018, PTI published a story on Sanjay Sathe of Nashik district. Sathe had grown 750 kg of onions this season. He was offered a rate of Rs. 1 per kg in the wholesale market when he tried selling them. He finally managed to negotiate a deal where he was paid Rs. 1,064 for 750 kg....

-Economic and Political Weekly Small and marginal farmers are not the real beneficiaries of loan waivers. In the year following loan waivers, small farmers lose out on three counts: lower access to formal loans, falling agricultural revenue because of higher informal loan costs, and falling agricultural productivity. Instead, supply-side interventions could make a real difference in farmers’ lives as a long-term alternative to loan waivers. Please click here to access the full...