2 Jul, 2019
Will budget 2019 turn the farming tide?
The Indian downturn is underscored by a more-than-expected slump in agriculture exports and farmgate prices, lagging food-processing and poor human resources.
11 Jun, 2019
Half-baked solutions sully farming space
Farmers are easily distracted from livelihood issues while the bureaucracy goes for half-baked solutions, driving India into a precarious future.
1 Jun, 2019
Dropping the ploughshare on one’s feet
Entrenched vested interests have rigged the system making it easier to dis-cuss a new approach to the food system than to implement one.
22 Apr, 2019
The danger of silver bullets
It is time for professional politicians and armchair experts talking big money to step aside and for experts to manage the farm sector
2 Feb, 2019
Budget 2019 and scepticism in the countryside
Since the grandiose announcement in 2016 of doubling farmers’ incomes, the real incomes of farmers have fallen. What can the budget offer in 2019?
1 Feb, 2019
Ballot sans hope
Budgets and even ballots are seemingly irrelevant after the GST roll out and the government allowing non-state actors to influence the narrative even as the farm sector sinks into an abyss
26 Dec, 2018
FACE TO FACE – Right policies; effective follow up
Loud propaganda or slogans do not change livelihoods. “We need right policies and follow-up action to help farmers come out of the current farm crisis,” says Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman of the Punjab Farmer Commission and Chairman of the New Delhi-based NGO, Bharat Krishak Samaj. Excerpts:
While there is no doubt that there has been an increase in farm output in the last two years on account of favourable monsoon, how come the farm-ers did not really benefit?
17 Dec, 2018
Harvesting a cruel joke
The crisis engulfing farmers was created by negligence and bad policy. The resultant migration to urban India has devastating socio-economic consequences.
12 Dec, 2018
The cost of deceiving farmers
Frustration on the farms has reached an inflexion point and all of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises could actually go against him.
21 Sep, 2018
Dhaka diary – Between the traffic and the Politics
Despite the reigning chaos, social parameters, health and education indi-ces of Bangladesh are far better than those in India.
