-The Hindu Business Line Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan, Chairman of the much discussed Farmers’ Commission whose report mooted an MSP at 50 per cent above cost, feels that income support can be given in the form of free inputs or higher procurement as well. While welcoming ‘PM-Kisan’, he says cash transfer should not become a form of patronage and that the focus should shift from loan write-offs to long-term policies....
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Uttar Pradesh's farmers split over cane, cattle and crashing prices -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu Agrarian crisis has not dimmed Prime Minister Modi’s appeal The sugarcane farmers gathered around a tree-shaded charpoy at Bhainswala village, a few kilometres from Shamli town in western Uttar Pradesh, share a common litany of woes — late payments, high input costs, the stray cattle menace — for which most blame the policies of the BJP government. But when the discussion veers around to the Lok Sabha election, pandemonium breaks out...
More »A bitter harvest: farmers reap what politicians sow -Jayaraj Sivan
-The Times of India Farmer unrest in Tamil Nadu is a much-debated subject on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. However, the widespread Agrarian distress has been in the making for decades as successive governments have had little understanding of the sector’s problems. Now that elections are here, farmers, who are an influential group in most of the constituencies, are again the focus of political campaigners. “Both the Congress and the...
More »'All parties treat farmers like beggars': Punjab's agriculture workers have no hope from elections -Manu Moudgil
-Scroll.in Recent farm loan waivers and income support schemes have had little impact amid growing Agrarian distress. In January, farmers across the state of Punjab took to the roads in protest. In 12 districts of the state, they were protesting against banks that filed cases against loan defaulting farmers. Also part of their demands from the government was compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for families of farmers that had committed suicides,...
More »Battle for Maharashtra: Bread and butter at the heart of the political discourse in Vidarbha -CL Manoj
-The Economic Times Vidarbha has over 20% of the state’s population and is the land of perennial Agrarian crisis and farmers’ suicides. Ten Lok Sabha seats are up for grabs in Vidarbha. In 2014, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine delivered a body blow to this Congress base (with NCP fighting separately then) by sweeping all the 10 seats. The BJP won 44 of the 62 assembly segments of the region without an alliance...
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