-The Hindu Business Line Export sops, higher consumption to help get rid of excess milk powder stocks The New Year is set to bring smiles on the faces of dairy farmers, thanks to firm prices of the skimmed milk powder (SMP) following export incentives by the government. Most co-operative dairies and private players were able to get rid of their excess SMP stock, which led to firming up of prices by at least...

-The Economic Times Milk prices are likely to go up in 2019, cooperative dairies said, as supplies are less than usual during this period. Lower returns to farmers have led to the drop in milk production in winter, when supplies tend to go up, they said. “Milk prices are bound to increase in 2019. Low stocks of skimmed milk powder (SMP) and a drop in milk supplies compared to previous year are the...

-The Indian Express Farmers getting lower prices for their produce, much lower than the minimum support prices announced by the government for the kharif crops this year, has hit the rural consumption demand story. New Delhi: The consumption-driven story of India’s economic growth is expected to face a slowdown as wide concerns emerge about the weakening rural demand. At a time when public expenditure is likely to be curtailed by the obligation...

-Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, December 2018 (WP-2018-026) There are three goals of agricultural development in India. These are: (a) achieving high growth by raising productivity; (b) inclusiveness by focusing on lagging regions, small farmers and women; and (c) sustainability of agriculture. In this paper, we will address two questions: (a) How far India progressed in the three goals of agriculture in recent decades? (b) What are the policies...

-Economic and Political Weekly In the wake of the central government’s minimum support prices hike for kharif 2018–19, the state government in Madhya Pradesh implemented a variant of the deficiency payments system called the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana for compensating the farmers when market prices fell below MSP. Besides the problems of long delays in payments to farmers, large transaction costs that farmers incurred due to multiple registrations, and the disposal of...