-Scroll.in The Central government has thrown its weight behind traders, investors and corporations. Three ordinances approved at a cabinet meeting on June 3 were hailed as landmark decisions that would benefit Indian farmers and transform the agricultural sector. One of these, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, amends the existing act to remove all agricultural commodities from the list of essential commodities. The government assumes that “the freedom to produce, hold, move, distribute...

-TheWire.in Unlike China which supported productivity-enhancing R&D Investments, India’s focus has been on politically-driven subsidies that mainly benefit large farmers. We saw the trailer two years ago. TV news visuals of the plight of thousands of rural poor marching to Mumbai shocked the relatively affluent residents of India’s financial capital. The March 2018 Maharashtra farmers’ march and now the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown-triggered migrant exodus has exposed the stark duality of India –  an...

-TheWire.in More clarity is needed on what will be considered an export order in case stock limit has to be imposed. Out of the three game-changing ordinances issued by the Centre on June 5, 2020, the shortest and the most critical to the future of Investment in agriculture is “The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020”. The ordinance seeks to specify and restrict the conditions under which the government will be empowered issue regulations...

-Hindustan Times Move beyond State-market, rural-urban, agri-non agri and welfare-growth binaries. They are linked This has been a difficult three months for India. The policy response to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the lockdown has forced it to confront long-ignored realities about the Indian economy — its fragility, regional and spatial concentration and deep structural inequity. It also made visible sources of precarious resilience. Agriculture and associated supply chains, for instance, held...

-Newsclick.in Every step in the direction of opening agriculture to global trade – as announced in the three ordinances by the Modi government – is a step towards reducing domestic food availability. The tropical region can grow a variety of crops which either cannot be grown at all, or for much of the year, in the cold temperate regions of the world where metropolitan capitalism is located. These include beverages, fibres, vegetables...