-TheWire.in Even though India has had a few relatively successful models, contract farming has failed to take off in a meaningful manner. Of the three agriculture-related ordinances promulgated on June 5, 2020, the most predictable was ‘The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020’. Put simply, it provides a legal basis to the existing practice of contract farming in India’s agriculture and allied sectors. In 2018, the Union...

-Down to Earth Distress among marginal farmers and unavailability of food to migrant labourers has been largely ignored in Union government’s economic stimulus   Agriculture and allied activities are considered ‘essential’ and officially face no restriction to harvest and supply to the market, even in the middle of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. But an agrarian crisis stemming from systemic failures needs to be considered for immediate policy response. The current distress...

-ThePrint.in None of the new agri-marketing laws have anything to do with the coronavirus or the lockdown, but were brought in by Modi govt when Parliament was shut. My friend Ajay Vir Jakhar, who runs Bharat Krishak Samaj and is currently the Chair of Punjab Farmers’ Commission, has tweeted a mischievous request asking for names and contact details of those farmer organisations that support the three “historic” ordinances passed recently for the...

-The Hindu BJP government has given a free hand to corporate houses to exploit us, they say Chandigarh: Several farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti on Monday held protests in several districts of Punjab against the Centre’s recent ordinance on the agriculture sector, besides the proposed amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003. Farmers staged the protests in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur, Moga, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Fazilka districts and submitted...

-The Indian Express Calling it a “historic day for agriculture”, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the reforms will largely free the sector from a system of inspectors and permits. New Delhi: Clearing the way for significant reforms in the agriculture sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared three ordinances aimed at lifting restrictions on key commodities such as cereals, pulses, onion and potato, and giving farmers the freedom to sell...