-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...

-Newsclick.in Private capital in agriculture is a death warrant for farmers, but the PM is trapped. He can either have a ‘firm leader’ image or avert this tragedy. What was intended to be a two-day protest on 26-27 November 2020 in Delhi has turned into a month-long protest on its borders. As it is turning into a nationwide protest with mass mobilisation, not only of farmers but of different classes of people,...

-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,...

-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...