-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Farmers protesting in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra demand better prices for their produce and loan waivers. But low prices and loans are not the real problems. These are mere symptoms of structural problems which cannot be solved by temporary measures such as a loan waiver. "While such turmoil appears to have immediate causes, their sources are rooted in problems that lie deeper," says Prakash Bakshi, a former...

-The Hindu Economist suggests implementation of a radical form of and distribution and ‘low external input sustainable agriculture’ system Mumbai: Economist and former member of Maharashtra State Planning Board H.M. Desarda, on Tuesday termed the recently announced farm loan waiver by the State government as a necessary but not sufficient condition to deal with the problems related to agriculture. Prof. Desarda linked today’s problems in agriculture to ecology and traced their origins to...

-The Economic Times blog With loan waivers granted on Sunday to farmers in Maharashtra, and to farmers in Uttar Pradesh in April, Madhya Pradesh’s agriculturalists continue to demand waivers and the revision of the minimum support price even after protesting farmers in Mandsaur were shot dead by the police. While such turmoil appears to have immediate causes, their sources are rooted in problems that lie deeper. Today’s level of food grain production...

-The Hindu Without government support, farmers pay the price for a bumper crop they labour so hard to produce The ongoing farmers’ agitation has taken on a shockingly violent form. Discussion has revolved around an apparent paradox: why are farmers rioting after a bumper crop? But any student of economics knows that prices fall after bumper harvests, which is good for consumers but terrible for farmers. This is why the government needs...

-Economic and Political Weekly Nandini Nayak (nandini@aud.ac.in) teaches at the School of Development Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi and is principal investigator of the research project on which this article is based. Shikha Nehra (shikhanehra92@gmail.com) is a graduate student at Ambedkar University Delhi and a research assistant on the same project. The renewed Public Distribution System (PDS) under the “rights-based” National Food Security Act, 2013 has increased access to foodgrains in Delhi. However,...