-The Indian Express Farmers’ genuine concerns must be addressed as soon as possible so that they can continue producing food and fibre needed for the ever-increasing population. In the early 1960s, near-famine conditions prevailed in India and some 10 million tonnes of wheat had to be imported from the US under the PL480 programme. The country’s situation was pejoratively dubbed “ship-to-mouth” existence, as foodgrains arriving via ships were immediately consumed. In 1963, Norman...
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Amid protests over agri laws let's look at how some countries support farmers -Richard Mahapatra
-Down to Earth Every day, 54, mostly developed countries give nearly $2 billion in support to their farmers The sites of the farmers’ protests on the borders of Delhi are a microcosm of Indian peasantry — rich and poor, small and big, irrigated and rainfed and supported and not supported. The voices from these sites have now merged into one clarion call: Guarantee government support to farmers by legalising the minimum support...
More »In Punjab, the centrality of the mandi system -Shreya Sinha
-Hindustan Times The mandi has been a major rallying cry for the protests in Punjab. Its importance to agricultural life cannot be overstated The stand-off between the government and the farmers on the new farm laws shows no signs of easing. For a long time, the government insisted that the protest was led by middlemen and large farmers only in Punjab, and to some extent Haryana, who were concerned about losing their...
More »Who are Shetkari Sanghatana, the group backing govt on the farm laws? -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express While the Sanghatana has supported the farm laws, it has also demanded that the ban on the export of onions be removed forthwith — and has threatened to pelt BJP MPs with onion bulbs if the central government did not accede to the demand. On Monday, some farmers’ unions met Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to express support for the three farm laws against which thousands of farmers are...
More »A new harvest -Shiv Visvanathan
-The Telegraph Agriculture has a moral economy that the media lack The farmers strike of 2020 as an event was a collage of multiple narratives. It tempted one to compare it to the story of the seven blind men and the elephant. As reportage, it lacked the solidity of traditional narratives. It was as if every reporter and news broadcaster, every witness, had a different reaction to the events of the week....
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