-Livemint.com The strategy for doubling Farmer incomes will differ from state to state, and from one region to another even within a state After two consecutive years of drought, in 2014-15 and 2015-16, Farmers of many crops were hit by low market prices in several states in 2016-17. In view of widespread discontent, there is a sense of urgency about addressing their issues. Therefore, the conference organized by the ministry of agriculture...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The Agriculture Ministry has broadened the scope of the proposed Contract Farming Bill by bringing marketing and services into its ambit and cutting back on States’ role in regulating the sector, paying heed to a multitude of responses that the planned piece of legislation elicited. “On the basis of the great response it received from stakeholders, we have made many changes to the Bill. There is...

-Livemint.com Linking MSPs to a multiple of costs and ignoring other dynamics, such as demand and global prices, risks creating distortions and disincentivizing productivity Government policymaking seems to be making a volte-face from supporting consumers (by keeping food inflation low), to supporting producers (by raising food prices). In the 2018-19 Union budget, the government “decided to keep minimum support prices (MSP) for all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one-and-a-half times of...

-Livemint.com To stabilize crop prices and make them remunerative, the Swaminathan Commission proposed significant improvements in the implementation of MSPs Across the country, Farmers are furious—and rightfully so. Four years ago, they helped bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power, believing Narendra Modi’s claims that they would no longer suffer official neglect. But since then, conditions in agriculture have got worse. Earlier problems have worsened as farm incomes have been squeezed...

-Firstpost.com/ The Ladies Finger “After all, what did the widows of Farmers know about agriculture, crop management, bank loans, private debts, land documents, health bills, power connections, panchayat politics, children’s education? The short answer was – everything.” When Farmers commit suicide in India – an occurrence so common that ‘Farmer suicides’ is a phrase that’s become commonplace in newsrooms and policy spaces – their deaths are assessed and a compensation is given...