-The Hindu Business Line A month into kharif arrivals, there has been no positive turn of events for farmers. Cereals, pulses and oilseeds are selling well below the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in mandis. The government seems to have failed them with the shoddily designed PM-AASHA scheme and its inadequate implementation till now. Immediate steps are required to prevent a recurrence of farmers’ anger spilling onto the streets. The umbrella policy Pradhan...
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The spirit of mahua -Diya Kohli
-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...
More »Sowing hopes
-The Hindu Business Line The AASHA scheme promises better returns on crops, but implementation is the key With the decades-old minimum support price (MSP) system failing to address the crisis at the farm gate, the three schemes that are a part of AASHA – the Price Support Scheme (PSS) itself, the Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS) and the Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPPS) – point to an innovative, MSP-plus...
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 »From Plate to Plough: The right agri-support -Ashok Gulati & Tirtha Chatterjee
-The Indian Express Schemes to ensure that farmers get fair returns will come a croppper unless trade and tariffs are synced with minimum support prices. With farm prices of several commodities falling way below their minimum support prices (MSPs) in 2016-17 and 2017-18, farmers have been under increasing stress. The Centre and several state governments are searching for ways and means to support farmers. In his recent address (Mann ki Baat), the...
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