-The Hindu Farm distress is increasingly being triggered by excess output and falling prices, but policy fixes are yet to address this Why are Indian farmers perpetually in revolt? The question has been raised by many after the recent farmers’ march to Mumbai and simmering rebellions across the States in recent years. No doubt, agriculture is one segment of the economy on which vote-conscious governments haven’t skimped on outlays. Over the years, Central...

-The Hindu Farming must be treated as a market-based enterprise and made viable on its own terms The week-long farmers’ march which reached Mumbai earlier this month, on the anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March of 1930, was unprecedented in many ways. It was mostly silent and disciplined, mostly leaderless, non-disruptive and non-violent, and well organised. It received the sympathy of middle class city dwellers, food and water from bystanders, free medical services...

-The Indian Express The government’s projections of milk production almost doubling and incomes of farmers more than trebling by 2023-24 seem rather rosy. It took over one-and-a-half decades for India’s milk production to roughly double from 80.6 million tonnes (mt) in 2000-01 to 163.7 mt in 2016-17. But if the Narendra Modi government’s National Action Plan for Dairy Development: Vision-2022 is to be believed, it’s possible not only to achieve the next...

-The Hindu Business Line Indore: Procurement of wheat by government agencies in Madhya Pradesh has begun on Thursday, mainly in the divisions of Indore and Ujjain, where the cereal crop ripens early. Official sources in the State Food and Civil Supplies Department said wheat purchases will commence in the Narmadapuram division from March 20 and across other parts of the State from March 26. The MP Government is purchasing wheat from the...

-TheWire.in Protesting farmers are planning to encircle the assembly and press for demands they feel the government has betrayed them on: crop prices, a loan waiver, forest rights, procurement and more. Shankar Waghere flings his plastic bag on the ground and hunches over on his wooden cane to gather his breath. Then he kneels down, panting, and closes his eyes. They remain shut for the next 15 minutes. It’s been a lot...