-The Hindu Business Line The Centre and States must eschew the politically expedient option of loan waivers and look for long-term solutions The sweeping wave of loan waivers has generated serious debates across the country on their economics and likely outcomes. Till date 12 States have announced loan waiver amounting to more than Rs.2 lakh crore. Loan waiver cannot be a solution to address the agrarian crisis, instead the government must look for...

-The Indian Express An income transfer policy combined with direct cash transfer is the best way to help the farmer Losses in the recent elections to the assemblies of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have given the BJP a jolt. The party had misjudged the gravity of the farm distress problem till then: The Union agriculture minister described farmer agitations as “political drama”. However, the party not only acknowledges the crisis...

-Livemint.com All recent reforms mooted on farm credit do not address the needs of farmers for whom formal credit doors are shut Farm distress has been a sadly persistent feature for the past five years, the initial two years on account of failed rains, but in the last three years because of policy failure on a number of fronts, including, most visibly, unremunerative prices for farm produce. That it shapes electoral...

-The Hindu In addition to reforming the credit system, agriculture should be made profitable Rural agrarian distress is firmly at the centre of the national discourse today, triggered by the recent Assembly election results in the Hindi heartland as well as continuous farmer agitations in the past two years (picture). Just a month ago, the farmers’ march in Delhi highlighted the reality of their deprivation, anger and resolve. Quite remarkably, their presence...

-TheWire.in The government has to evolve policies suitable to a particular state and fine-tune them according to local needs. ‘Nothing succeeds like success,’ first written by Sir Arthur Helps in Realmah in 1868, is going to guide Political Parties while they draft manifestos for the next parliamentary election. It seems that the Rythu Bandhu (RB) scheme – also known as the Telangana model of direct investment support (DIS) to farmers – has...