-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...

-Livemint.com Behind the rising tide of farmers’ protests lie several structural weaknesses facing the farm economy In a year when farm growth has crossed the 4% mark and official statistics show a record increase in production, one would have expected farmers to celebrate. Instead, farmers in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are out on the streets protesting, and in some cases, facing bullets from the local police. What explains this...

-TheWire.in Farmers are once again wondering which crop will fetch them guaranteed good returns. Nagpur: What do you grow on your farm in the coming season that will fetch you good returns? This is a question millions of peasant farmers, particularly those with small holdings and no protective irrigation, are likely to ask themselves this month, possibly with no answers. They’ll go back to what they have been growing on their fields thus far,...

-Livemint.com Fiscal 2017 marks the fifth straight year when production of horticulture crop surpassed that of foodgrains New Delhi: Latest numbers from the agriculture ministry released on Tuesday showed that production of horticulture crops like fruits and vegetables touched a record high of 295 million tonnes in 2016-17. Apart from being higher than foodgrain production estimated at 273 million tonnes during this period—another record i.e. 2016-17 marks the fifth straight year when...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A robust farm growth of 5.2 per cent in the March quarter pushed GDP growth up to 7.1 per cent. However, growth in the sector was lower than the previous quarter's expansion of 6.9 per cent. Farm growth for the full fiscal zoomed to 4.9 per cent because of good rainfall and record food-grain production compared with a near flat 0.7 per cent expansion in 2015-16.   "The third...