-The Hindu The increasing cost of production and the increase in GST on cartons has triggered protests in Himachal Pradesh Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh are out on the streets some three decades after their last big agitation. The protests are not surprising; their anger has been simmering for a while. To understand the present crisis, it is crucial to understand the developments of the last few decades. In the 1970s and 1980s,...

-Newsclick.in SKM leaders Darshan Pal and Yogendra Yadav have outrightly rejected the committee. The Central government's decision to exclude Punjab institutions and state government representations from a committee on agricultural issues has been called out by farmer leaders. The committee, headed by former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal, will have 26 members, including farmer representatives, agri-scientists and agri-economists, as well as officials from Central and state governments, a notification issued by the Ministry of...

-The Hindu Farmer outfits in Punjab say they will be forced to start an agitation against the State AAP government if a complete farm loan debt waiver is not announced shortly A recent study on farmers’ suicide in Punjab by Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has revealed that in six districts of the State, as many as 9,291 farmers have died by suicide between the years 2000-2018 and around 88% of the...

-Press release by Samyukta Kisan Morcha dated 17th April, 2022 On the call of Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the MSP Guarantee Week was observed from April 11th to 17th by the farmers across the country — Protests, demonstrations, meets, conventions, seminars and other programs were held across the country Despite SKM’s repeated requests for clarifications regarding the committee on MSP, vis-à-vis its composition, its mandate, its tenure, and its terms of reference, the...

-The Hindu Limited impact in western Uttar Pradesh’s sugarcane belt After attracting thousands of farmers from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to join a year-long agitation, farm union leaders were largely unable to leverage that mass support to tilt the results in the Assembly polls.  In Punjab, the union leaders who fought the elections are set to lose their deposits. In U.P., where the wider Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) platform campaigned against the BJP...