-The Hindu * What’s the problem? The year 2017 was marked by several farmers’ protests nationwide, with a few turning violent. Last month, in New Delhi, 184 farmer groups came together from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana to take part in a ‘protest walk.’ The protest once again highlighted the plight of farmers and the extent of agrarian distress. The agriculture sector is characterised by instability in incomes...

-TheBetterIndia.com Appaso Kabade, a farmer from Karandwadi village in the Sangli district of Maharashtra, owned 30 acres of ancestral land. As a local sugar mill was giving a reasonable price for sugarcane, he started growing the crop. He was able to grow about 25 to 30 tonnes of sugarcane per acre, but his dream was to reach up to 100 tonnes from the land, but it remained unfulfilled. Suresh took to farming...

-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-The Indian Express Union government must address structural issues in agricultural policy, allow states greater autonomy. Farmers from across the country are out on Delhi’s streets agitating just as the deliberations for the 2018 budget are beginning and it’s time to seek solutions to the structural issues that plague the system. The “one-size-fits-all” policy created for the farm sector is self-destructive in design and programmes meant to double farmer incomes are collapsing. The...

-The Times of India MEERUT: Jyoti Singh, 24, who left a cushy corporate job in Gurgaon to do organic farming in her Bulandshahr village, hasn't been able to find a single transporter for more than three weeks now to take her dying cow Moni to a vet. The cow, injured in a leg, needs to go to a hospital in Bareilly for expert treatment, but such is the fear of rampaging gau...