-Newsclick.in A country that ranks 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index can’t be said to be self-sufficient in foodgrains. The surplus stocks are due to shortage of purchasing power in peoples’ hands. The Indian intelligentsia has an incredible propensity to swallow the self-serving arguments of metropolitan capitalism that are typically supposed to constitute ‘economic wisdom’. And nowhere is this more evident than in the case of India’s food economy. There...
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MSP -- the factoids versus the facts -Reetika Khera, Sudha Narayanan and Prankur Gupta
-The Hindu The debate on agricultural issues must take into account the changed geography of procurement and the seller’s profile According to one definition, a factoid is “an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact”. After the passage of the three controversial farm laws, the Minimum Support price (MSP) — not mentioned in the laws — has gained a lot of attention....
More »MSP only real risk protection for farmers, says new study -Chetan Chauhan
-Hindustan Times In Punjab, 90% of the agri produce is traded at markets regulated under the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act by licensed commission agents. Bihar abolished the APMC Act in 2006 and traders and private players can buy produce directly from farmers. Farmers in fully regulated agriculture markets in Punjab got 30% more price for their produce in 2018-19 than those in totally unregulated markets in Bihar and partially regulated...
More »Amid protests over agri laws let's look at how some countries support farmers -Richard Mahapatra
-Down to Earth Every day, 54, mostly developed countries give nearly $2 billion in support to their farmers The sites of the farmers’ protests on the borders of Delhi are a microcosm of Indian peasantry — rich and poor, small and big, irrigated and rainfed and supported and not supported. The voices from these sites have now merged into one clarion call: Guarantee government support to farmers by legalising the minimum support...
More »In Punjab, the centrality of the mandi system -Shreya Sinha
-Hindustan Times The mandi has been a major rallying cry for the protests in Punjab. Its importance to agricultural life cannot be overstated The stand-off between the government and the farmers on the new farm laws shows no signs of easing. For a long time, the government insisted that the protest was led by middlemen and large farmers only in Punjab, and to some extent Haryana, who were concerned about losing their...
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