-TheWire.in Even though India has had a few relatively successful models, contract farming has failed to take off in a meaningful manner. Of the three agriculture-related ordinances promulgated on June 5, 2020, the most predictable was ‘The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020’. Put simply, it provides a legal basis to the existing practice of contract farming in India’s agriculture and allied sectors. In 2018, the Union...

-ThePrint.in None of the new agri-marketing laws have anything to do with the coronavirus or the lockdown, but were brought in by Modi govt when Parliament was shut. My friend Ajay Vir Jakhar, who runs Bharat Krishak Samaj and is currently the Chair of Punjab Farmers’ Commission, has tweeted a mischievous request asking for names and contact details of those farmer organisations that support the three “historic” ordinances passed recently for the...

-The Hindu BJP government has given a free hand to corporate houses to exploit us, they say Chandigarh: Several farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti on Monday held protests in several districts of Punjab against the Centre’s recent ordinance on the agriculture sector, besides the proposed amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003. Farmers staged the protests in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur, Moga, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Fazilka districts and submitted...

-Newsclick.in And yet, it is being tom-tommed as ‘freedom’ for farmers and ‘self-reliance’ for country! Silently, and in double quick time, changes in laws related to cultivation, sale, stocking and pricing of agricultural produce – food grain, vegetables, etc. – have been proposed and disposed by the Narendra Modi government. Three ordinances relating to these key dimensions were given Presidential assent late on June 5 night, and they came into force “at...

-Livemint.com The ongoing reforms won’t help if they remain deprived of market access and suffer low demand Earlier this week, as part of the package for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Cabinet approved the proposals for agricultural marketing reforms announced in May by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The government has approved the The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, along with amendments to the Essential Commodities Act. It has also...