-Livemint.com The best way to double the real Incomes of Indian farmers would be to halve their numbers through job creation in other parts of the economy The Narendra Modi government last week announced sharp increases in minimum support prices (MSPs) for a variety of farm products. The move itself is not unexpected. The first sign that the Modi government would shift away from its earlier strategy of minimal hikes to douse...
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1,092 farmers commit suicides in Maharashtra in 5 months -Priyanka Kakodkar
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Maharashtra has recorded 1,092 farmer suicides till the end of May this year according to official data. This is lower by only 72 cases compared to 2017 despite a loan waiver being declared in the state a year ago. While there has been a marginal dip in the total cases, the arid and deprived Marathwada region has seen a rise in these five months. It has recorded...
More »Using MGNREGA Funds to Subsidise Farm Labour is a Recipe for Disaster -Diego Maiorano and Chakradhar Buddha
-TheWire.in It will greatly bring down the poverty reduction impact of the programme, harm the construction of much-needed rural infrastructure and dramatically diminish the labourers’ bargaining power vis-à-vis the farmers. At the recent fourth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, the government announced the formation of a sub-group of chief ministers to propose ways of linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with agricultural activities. The group is headed...
More »Farm support prices come with hidden costs -Ashima Goyal
-The Hindu Business Line In view of the distortions arising out of excessive price support, direct income transfers to farmers is a better option The domestic debate has tended to conclude that the rise in MSP announced in the Budget is an essential part of achieving the government’s objective of doubling farm Incomes. But MSP stands for minimum support prices and is an instrument designed for reducing income volatility, not for raising...
More »Target Incomes, not prices -Puja Mehra
-The Hindu Income support must be provided to at least the most vulnerable farmers Our farm policy is so bad, the proverb ‘you reap what you sow’ isn’t true any longer. A bumper crop is no different from a drought, for it too depresses farm Incomes. Good rains, excessive sowing and the bumper harvest last year produced gluts in the market that sent the prices of many crops, and therefore farm Incomes, crashing....
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