-The Times of India blog Dozens of farming groups determined to stall supply of fruits, vegetables and dairy products to major Indian cities is a clear indicator of growing rural discontent that the Modi government has been struggling to deal with for quite some time, amidst supply glut and depressed farm produce prices. Worried that unhappy farmers could cost BJP dearly in upcoming state and national elections, the government has promised to...
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A new problem of plenty: Protein excess -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express Government godowns are, for the first time, bursting at the seams with pulses on record procurement Pune: When in mid-December, Anand Pawar decided to register the standing tur (pigeon-pea) on 10 out of his 50-acre holding with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Marketing Federation’s purchase centre at Latur, he was quite hopeful of realising the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,450 per quintal for the soon-to-be-harvested crop. At...
More »The wait for deep agricultural reforms -Siraj Hussain
-Livemint.com While there are several creditable achievements, it is the deeper structural reforms where expectations from a strong government have not been met Amidst expectations of a magical transformation of the Indian economy, the Narendra Modi government took over the reins in May 2014. During the election campaign, people were led to believe that the Gujarat model of agricultural development, which delivered 8% growth in agriculture during fiscal years 2003-14, would be...
More »Farm, Fractured -V Kumara Swamy
-The Telegraph As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to mark his fourth anniversary in power, V. Kumara Swamy takes stock of how hollow his promises to farmers have been. Will there be a price to pay? Hemant Patidar, a farmer, has been camping at the Mandsaur mandi in Madhya Pradesh with 15 quintals of “good quality” garlic for more than a week now. The price has been on a downslide for the...
More »High procurement of crop means little to farmers: Yogendra Yadav -Pratyaksh Srivastava
-The Indian Express Yogendra Yadav said that a greater crop procurement often means lower prices and in the process, ends up hurting the already distressed farmer. New Delhi: A day after Haryana’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Om Prakash Dhankar announced that the state has recorded a ‘bumper’ wheat crop this year, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday said that these statistics mean little to the farmers. “Unfortunately, state policy on...
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