-Livemint.com Maharashtra’s capping of farm loan waiver will benefit farmers of drought-prone regions more than those in prosperous western, northern areas Mumbai: By capping the farm loan waiver at Rs1.5 lakh per farmer regardless of land holding, the Maharashtra government has ensured that farmers in the critically affected Marathwada and Vidarbha stand to gain more than those in the prosperous western and northern regions. Farm activists and at least one member of the...

-Hindustan Times India needs a paradigm shift in Agriculture for economic and ecological sustainability Whenever flashpoints are reached, such as the current farmers’ agitation, there is a clamour for immediate palliatives. This is understandable, as those in acute distress need relief. But what we must not overlook are the profound possibilities of reform that such crises open up. Take Madhya Pradesh (MP), the epicentre of the agitation, which best exemplifies the required...

-Outlook Good monsoon or bad, glut or drought, boom or bust...it’s always fair weather for the range of middlemen who come between the farmer and consumer. An anatomy of the trade. One of the axioms of logic is called the Law of the Excluded Middle. Something has to be eit­her true or false—there’s no middle ground. As we all know, economics works a bit differently. Facts can be fickle, data pliable, and...

-Newsclick.in Forget 50 percent profit over the cost of production, the farmers were forced to sell their produce at well below the minimum support price and the cost of production, pushing them deeper into debt. Farming turning increasingly unviable across vast swathes of India, and the Narendra Modi-led government not delivering on the BJP’s election promise to “make Agriculture rewarding” lie behind the massive protests that have rocked several BJP-ruled states in...

-Livemint.com Madhya Pradesh farmers are unhappy that outsiders are misled by claims made by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Indore, Harda, Mandsaur (MP): Ghanshyam Singh Pipawat, 45, a farmer from the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, has a question for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “When Modi declared notebandi, he said this would be the last time people will have to stand in line. Then why am I standing in a 2-km-long line to...