-Newsclick.in An explosive farming crisis and sustained protests over the past two years have converged in the historic march by 50,000 farmers to Mumbai. Over the past six days, India has slowly woken up to farmers’ distress – and their resistance. On 6 March, about 20,000 farmers from various parts of the state mobilized by the CPI (M) affiliated All India Kisan Sabha gathered at Nashik in north-western Maharashtra to begin a...

-Scroll.in Led by the All India Kisan Sabha, the protestors are planning to protest at the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha on Monday. Thousands of farmers in Maharashtra are marching from Nashik to Mumbai, demanding a complete waiver of loans and electricity bills, NDTV reported on Thursday. They are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations on providing minimum support prices and safeguarding the interests of small farmers. “We want the state...

-The Hindu Business Line An analysis of how agri concerns will play out in four poll-bound States this year has some key takeaways for politicians ‘Rural distress’ became the major economic narrative to interpret the recent Assembly elections results for Gujarat, specifically the fact that rural support for the incumbent government was considerably less than the support from cities. The woes of the rural sector could be a bigger issue this year. Of...

-Hindustan Times A newer generation of politicians has again voiced the demand of giving land to landless Dalit households as a means to resolve the crisis of rural livelihoods. But the relentless pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies and liberalisation has rendered most of these demands Utopian Seven decades after Independence, while a majority of farmers cultivate their own land (however small their holdings may be), most Dalit farmers in much of India...

-Economic and Political Weekly The last budget of the Modi government comes against the backdrop of severe agrarian and rural distress. It is also the last opportunity to undo the damage caused to the rural economy by this government in the last four years. While the government has finally acknowledged the gravity of the situation, its response has been limited to empty rhetoric without any financial commitment. Going by the past...