-Financial Express Farmers in India (also in undivided India) have generally been poor, and it has not been only the phenomenon of post-reforms period in Independent India, as believed by some. Yes, now it is becoming worse day by day. Farmers’ distress over the past few years has taken a new dimension so much so that political parties, without exception, are now using it as an opportunity to win elections by...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-The Indian Express Implicitly taxed through restrictive marketing and trade policies, farmers need a stable income policy. The Narendra Modi government is entering its proverbial “last 10 overs”. All the stops are being pulled to win over targeted segments of society that could potentially bring the BJP/NDA back to office. One important segment, perhaps the largest one, is that of farmers. The attempt to woo them by announcing higher minimum support prices...

-The Indian Express To address farmers' woes, we need a multi-pronged strategy of income support, government investment, and institutional innovations, and not a one-size-fits-all approach. The two main policy interventions repeatedly discussed in recent months to tackle farmer distress — loan waivers and minimum support prices (MSP) — treat all farmers (large/small, male/female) alike. But farmers are heterogeneous. They differ especially by income, land owned and gender. And farmer dissatisfaction is...

-Financial Express Even as loan waivers are known to help a small number of farmers, Odisha has come up with a farmer-centric scheme which assists farming on a large and secular scale. It comes at a time when a debate on validity of loan waiver is being discussed across the country. KALIA — a farmer-specific scheme launched by the state — includes payments to everyone from big farmers and landless cultivators...