-The Indian Express Turnaround in farm prices is the only good news in today’s overall dismal economic environment. The Narendra Modi government’s first term (June 2014 to May 2019) was marked by benign consumer food price inflation. At a mere 3.3% year-on-year, it averaged below even the 4.3% for overall retail inflation. Politically, the ruling party benefited, given that there are far more consumers of milk in India than dairy farmers. The...

-Financial Express Budget 2020: The direct budgetary aid would be in the form of a grant equivalent to the equity capital of each FPO. Budget 2020: The government will likely announce a five-year scheme in the upcoming Budget, entailing a total support —both budgetary and indirect —of Rs 7,000-10,000 crore to honour its pledge of creating 10,000 farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) and help boost their agricultural income. The direct budgetary aid would be...

-Moneycontrol.com Since the general elections, the agriculture sector has taken a back seat as the economy has itself touched new lows Since public memory is short, there is every likelihood that food inflation of 14.12 per cent in December 2019 will obfuscate the last four year’s history of low prices of food items. Vocal sections of urban India would do well to remember that in January 2017, May to August 2017 and...

-Livemint.com * Despite the slowdown in rural demand, the spike in Food Prices is not showing any signs of cooling. Here’s why * This is the best time for the budget to address the volatility in Food Prices. Reliable market intelligence on crop production and timely advisories to farmers can help stabilize prices New Delhi: For more than five years now, the Indian countryside has only heard stories of anguish. Consecutive years of...

-Livemint.com The government’s inordinately large food stockpiles have resulted in an artificial market scarcity On 7 January, the ministry of statistics released India’s advance estimates of national income for 2019-20, pegging the economy’s growth rate this financial year at 5%. Based on data available for the first two quarters, this seems an overestimate. Most indicators suggest that actual growth may be lower than 5%. This is bad news, especially since there is...