-Livemint.com Sluggish wage growth, lower crop planting, fluctuating prices paint a dismal picture for farmers and the agriculture sector New data released by the government on rural wages, crop prices and sowing of winter crops reveals that rural distress is worsening. Planting of wheat, the main winter crop, between October and early January was 5% lower than a year ago due to lower sowing in Madhya Pradesh by close to a million hectares;...

-The Economic Times Politicians in India firmly believe that the woes of farmers can be solved with freebies: free electricity, free water, farm loan waivers, fertilisers and seed subsidies, minimum support prices, etc. Little attention is paid to what really ails Indian agriculture: low productivity. From rice to wheat to coarse grains and pulses, from cash crops to food crops, Indian agriculture is punctured with very low productivity. Let's start with rice....

-Hindustan Times Herein lies the crisis of farmer politicians. They have neither aspirations nor the power of coercion working for them. Rural distress dominated discussions around the political-economy in 2017, and will likely continue to do so in 2018, much to the consternation of political incumbents. Those in opposition will be looking forward to harvesting this anger for their own benefit. One question is worth asking though. Where is the farmer-politician in...

-PTI Arun Jaitley had last year said that the Centre will not be part of a state's fiscal leverage in waiving farm loans and the cost has to be borne by the states Mumbai: The Maharashtra government today made allocations worth Rs 14,240 crore for the farm loan waiver scheme and for repayment to farmers whose produce was purchased by the state. The state's cooperation and marketing department today issued a Government Resolution...

-The Hindu Business Line Gujarat result shows politicians and governments would pay attention to farmer woes only when they are hit where it hurts Agriculture is in the eye of the storm, and we must thank Gujarat elections for this turn of events. Agrarian distress is gaining eyeballs like never before. Farmers have tried all kinds of methods in the past, but to no avail. They committed suicide, but it didn’t matter....