-Newsclick.in Private capital in agriculture is a death warrant for farmers, but the PM is trapped. He can either have a ‘firm leader’ image or avert this tragedy. What was intended to be a two-day protest on 26-27 November 2020 in Delhi has turned into a month-long protest on its borders. As it is turning into a nationwide protest with mass mobilisation, not only of farmers but of different classes of people,...
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Don’t ignore the women farmers -Thamizhachi Thangapandian
-The Hindu The gender gap in the agriculture sector will only widen more with the current farm laws Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan once said, “Some historians believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out hunting in search of food, women started gathering seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point...
More »Separating the wheat from the agri-policy chaff -Biswajit Dhar
-The Hindu In the farm laws debate, the focus should be on the exchequer-farm subsidies issue and the spending on farm subsidies In the on-going debates around the three new pieces of agricultural legislation and the farmers’ demand for continuation of minimum support prices (MSP), questions have often been raised whether the government should be using the taxpayers’ money to provide subsidies to the farming community in this country. However, logically, two...
More »Hit By Indebtedness and Suicides, Punjab Farmers Worry New Laws Will Make Things Worse -Pawanjot Kaur
-TheWire.in Researchers have found that small and marginal farmers and Dalit landless labourers are worst affected by the region's agrarian distress. Sangrur/Patiala (Punjab): In the villages of Punjab, strike a conversation on farming expenses with anyone, and they will say, “Karja tan hai hi (Of course, we have taken loans).” It’s these loans – from both institutional and non-institutional sources – that largely help the rural economy run in the state. But...
More »An examination of the pitfalls of the open-ended grain procurement system -Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard While the agitating farmers are clamouring for its continuation, the mechanism is a drain on govt resources, with the Centre buying far in excess of what it needs for distribution under PDS As thousands of farmers brave the winter chill to agitate against the three farm acts, a dominant fear for most of them is the impact that dismantling of the Minimum Support Price (MSP)-based mechanism will have on their...
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