-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...
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Bihar scrapped APMC Act, mandi system 14 years ago; here’s what it did to farmers -CK Manoj
-Down to Earth Why are farmers protesting the government’s ’reforms’, ask many. A look at how Bihar’s farmers have fared may explain The recent controversy about India’s newly minted farm laws have brought back into focus what Nitish Kumar did a decade-and-a-half ago: Shutting down the mandi (wholesale markets for agricultural produce) system in 2006. The much-touted ‘reform’ has impacted the state’s farmers, and not in a good way. Farmers have had to...
More »Why should Indian agriculture be liberalised when in most countries governments subsidise it? -Christophe Jaffrelot and Hemal Thakker
-The Indian Express Without some support from the state, the smallest of Indian peasants would be even more vulnerable. On September 27, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to three contentious farm bills passed by Parliament — The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 (FAPAFS), the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (FPTC) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020...
More »Why Farmers Are Worried About New Laws; It’s The History -Monika Mandal
-IndiaSpend.com The new farm laws that aim to double farmers’ income in two years by deregulating agricultural markets may further widen the inequalities in the sector, shows our analysis of similar legislations from the past. By weakening the government’s price guarantee system, the laws may end up hurting small and poor farmers, who form 80% of the sector and 23% of those who live below the poverty line, say critics. The privatisation...
More »The perils of deregulated imperfect agrimarkets -R Ramakumar
-The Hindu The Farm Acts were legislative misadventures, while much more is needed to address the genuine fears of farmers The eruption of massive farmers’ protests across India against the Farm Acts has shocked those in the seat of power in Delhi. According to the government, many private markets will be established, middlemen would disappear, farmers would be free to sell to any buyer and farmgate prices would rise. But the protesting...
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