-The Indian Express Considering the critical importance of agriculture for livelihoods, health, food security, and also keeping in mind the vulnerability of Indian farmers, it is necessary to go beyond reductionist expediency in considering agricultural reforms. In his speech on December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the three controversial farm laws will finally deliver justice to the vast majority of small farmers who have been ignored by successive governments. As...

-The Indian Express The Centre is within its rights to enact laws promoting barrier-free trade of farm produce (inter- as well as intra-state) and also dismantling stockholding restrictions. But that can be only after the farmer has sold. In November 2019, the Fifteenth Finance Commission submitted its interim report, wherein it proposed special “performance based incentives” to states that carried out agriculture sector reforms. These reforms specifically pertained to their enacting and implementing...

-Newsclick.in Eradication of the APMC-regulated mandi system and the entry of private players led the farming community to losing a favourable marketplace. Farmers were left with no option but to sell their produce to private procurers at throwaway prices. New Delhi: The nationwide protests against the three contentious Farm Laws enacted by the Centre has brought Bihar into focus. It is a state where new regulations for agricultural produce and its storage,...

-Hindustan Times Its absence make farmers less receptive to pro-Market Reforms which add to income uncertainty At the heart of the debate on farm laws is the issue of the level of farm incomes. Income volatility is a key dimension important for farmers’ welfare, understanding their anxieties, and the success of a pro-market reform. The two main risks associated with farming are production risks and price risks. While production-related risks that come...

-TheWire.in The economists, who have engaged with issues of agricultural policy, said that the Centre's reforms were based on "wrong assumptions" about why farmers were unable to get remunerative prices. New Delhi: A group of senior economists have released an open letter to the Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar calling for the repeal of the three contentious farm bills “which are not in the best interests of the small and marginal...