-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...

-The Telegraph HINTERLAND: Our structural problem — small and marginal rain-fed sustenance farms, over 80 per cent of India’s agriculture sector — remains unaddressed Let’s understand the chronology: before the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi promised farmers that he would comply with the Swaminathan Commission formula to arrive at a Minimum support Price for farm produce: a 50 per cent profit over the production cost. Post elections, he reneged on the promise...

-The Hindu Declining agricultural incomes and flagging state support to agriculture are some of the key structural issues The standoff between farmers and the government continues even after a few rounds of discussion and more than a fortnight of protest at the Delhi border by the farmers. The latest proposal by the government indicates its willingness to amend the three agriculture-related Acts passed in September. On the contentious issues of registration of...

-The Indian Express With farmers rejecting the government’s offer and deciding to continue their protest against the farm laws, The Sunday Express meets some of the farmers camping at Delhi’s borders, and visits their families and farms back home, to find a shared concern — a sense of despair over falling crop prices. Kurukshetra, Ludhiana, Moga, New Delhi, Patiala: Many countries experiencing rapid growth and rising prosperity, which may even be over...

-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...