Here Are the Reforms India's Farmers Really Need - Kavita Kuruganti 1-12-2021 https://thewire.in/agriculture/here-are-the-reforms-indias-farmers-really-need
Our reality is that farmers displaced from agriculture are not getting absorbed into other sectors due to a lack of opportunities there. What we need is a reforms agenda that incorporates a ‘sustainable livelihoods’ perspective from the bottom up.
We need a basket of modalities for making the guaranteed MSP, based on improved cot estimates. a reality for all farmers.
The basket of interventions needed would include expanded procurement; smarter market interventions by government agencies; a re-designed warehouse receipt scheme; price deficit payments, especially for perishables but vastly different from the way Madhya Pradesh designed its Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana; a legal mandate that price-bidding can begin only at MSP; investment in farmer-controlled Farmer Produce Organisations (FPOs) that are considered as sellers and not traders in the market; the widespread adoption of agro-ecology to reduce the cost of cultivation and so on.
A key intervention is about predictable export-import policy decisions from before the sowing season till the end of marketing season for any commodity.
Further: More Mandis, infra close to farmers, fees collected at Mandi to be ploughed back into infra, Direct marketing between farmers and end-consumers, invest in FPOs and community based institutions, not to make them into aggregators of big capital. and treat FPOs as sellers not traders..
Other articles relating to Farmers Agitation: http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/farmers-agitation-against-black-laws