-The Telegraph This year, a combination of factors is hurting the agriculture sector immensely A quiet, reverse transformation is happening in the countryside, and it is disconcerting. This sowing season, growing numbers of farmers are falling back on their bullocks as fuel prices are piercing the roof. The tractor, the symbol of modern farming, is becoming a luxury in the literal sense. The conventional ploughing equipment tied to bullocks costs only a...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org Ramesh Sharma is among lakhs of farmers from Bihar who earn more by working as farm labourers in Haryana than by harvesting the maize they grow at home Ramesh Sharma can’t remember the last time he spent an entire year at home. “I have been doing this for the past 15-20 years,” he says, while cutting sugarcane in a field in Gagsina village in Haryana’s Karnal district. For half of the year...

-Newsclick.in This is because the new farm laws have already paralysed mandis and traders are buying up paddy at lower prices. Even as farmer protests against the three new farm laws entered the 17th day, information available for mandis (wholesale markets) shows that a large proportion of this year’s paddy crop is being bought from farmers at much below the government declared Minimum Support Price (MSP). This could be attributed to the...

-The Tribune 70% India imports almost three-fourths of its annual domestic consumption of edible oils KHARIF harvesting operations are going to begin soon. Agricultural production is likely to surpass last year’s record production by 7-8%. The higher production inevitably puts downward pressure on market prices. The problem of low harvest prices has been compounded by the steep fall in the GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 2020-21; it will reduce...

-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...