-Gaon Connection While the central government continues to assure farmers that it will stand by the minimum support price of Rs 1,888 per quintal, farmers are being compelled to sell their paddy at Rs 1,200 a quintal or less. Jarnail Singh from Kabirganj in Pilibhit district in Uttar Pradesh has just returned from Paliya Mandi a dejected man. The 50-year-old was unable to sell his 250 quintals of ‘good quality’ paddy. “I...
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Centre objects to ‘tinkering’ with MSP to verify if farmers burnt paddy stubble
-The Indian Express The top court also issued notices to the Centre and Punjab, Haryana and Delhi governments on a plea by Class XII student Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka, which sought directions to provide free of cost stubble-removing machines to small and marginal farmers to check the menace. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta Tuesday objected to a proposal to withhold a part of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to verify...
More »Explained: Why it’s an underestimate to say only 6% farmers benefit from MSP -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The actual number could be anywhere between 15 per cent and 25 per cent. “Only 6% of Indian farmers benefit from minimum support prices (MSP)”. So widely-quoted is this figure — especially in the context of the recently-passed Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act — that it has become a factoid or even truism. What is, isn’t counted The apparent source of the 6% figure is the Shanta...
More »Farm bills: India’s fields are on fire -Devinder Sharma
-The Telegraph The tearing hurry with which agriculture market reforms have been pushed through, without even consulting farmers, has resulted in huge farm protests in Punjab and Haryana At a time when I see euphoria among mainstream economists over the new set of agricultural reforms, media reports say that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has observed that only 12 per cent of India’s paddy cultivators were able to sell their...
More »Bengal worries about bill fallout on PDS source -Pranesh Sarkar
-The Telegraph Laws to hit procurement, say officials Calcutta: Three farm reform bills passed by Parliament recently may play havoc with the public distribution system in Bengal as the state government’s procurement programme is likely to get affected because of entry of big players. The Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill...
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