-CaravanMagazine.in In 2006, the Bihar government deregulated the agricultural sector, and largely removed government oversight over food grain procurement. Previously a majority of food grain procurement happened through the Agricultural Produce Market Committee, a marketing board run by the state government that would organise mandis—wholesale markets—where farmers could directly sell their produce to the Food Corporation of India or the State Farming Corporation at the established minimum support price. The MSP...
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Shock treatment will not work in agriculture -Sarthi Acharya and Santosh Mehrotra
-The Hindu Post-1991, changes in industry caused a second de-industrialisation; the results in agriculture are likely to be no different Almost all sections of people including farmers agree that the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)-mandi policies for agricultural marketing, initiated in the 1960s for a few crops, have outlived their utility and the system needs a new policy in the face of the agricultural sector’s growth slowdown, the crop-composition not widening, and...
More »Paddy Prices Have Crashed Below MSP in Many States -Subodh Varma
-Newsclick.in This is because the new farm laws have already paralysed mandis and traders are buying up paddy at lower prices. Even as farmer protests against the three new farm laws entered the 17th day, information available for mandis (wholesale markets) shows that a large proportion of this year’s paddy crop is being bought from farmers at much below the government declared Minimum Support Price (MSP). This could be attributed to the...
More »The perils of deregulated imperfect agrimarkets -R Ramakumar
-The Hindu The Farm Acts were legislative misadventures, while much more is needed to address the genuine fears of farmers The eruption of massive farmers’ protests across India against the Farm Acts has shocked those in the seat of power in Delhi. According to the government, many private markets will be established, middlemen would disappear, farmers would be free to sell to any buyer and farmgate prices would rise. But the protesting...
More »Fixing the rules of the economy -Arun Maira
-The Hindu The fundamentals of the game have to change as they currently favour wealthy investors and not workers and tiny enterprises India has an incomes crisis: incomes of people in the lower half of the pyramid are too low. The solutions economists propose are: free up markets, improve productivity, and apply technology. These fundamentals of economics must be re-examined when applied to human work. Three solutions Economists say markets should be freed up...
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