Sunday Guardian Live

With the three agri-laws now on the statute books—and it seeming increasingly likely that they will remain there despite the on-going farmers’ protests and challenges to their legality—it is time to turn our attention to the path forward, and address both the real and perceived apprehensions. In addition to now taking on the onus of ensuring the average farmer in India is not only worse off than before, the Union Government has also become more directly responsible for the well-being of 600 mn farmers and their kin. The option of putting the states in the dock for ills of farming—otherwise a state subject—may no longer be available to the Centre.

The Wire

The Punjab assembly has hurriedly passed three pieces of legislation which attempt to nullify the Centre’s recent moves on the agricultural front.

The Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 were passed by the Congress government.

They now await the assent of the president before they can become law. But in this process, the limitations of the minimum support price (MSP) as a major policy instrument has been exposed.

Mid-Day

The onion farmers of Maharashtra appear to be at the receiving end of climate change. For the last two years, farmers from Ahmednagar and Nasik have been experiencing heavy rainfall. But this year, the monsoon season that continued till October, has brought along disease. Much of the onion crop has been destroyed after being infected with a fungal disease called Anthracnose, which tends to attack plants in the spring when the weather is cool and wet.”

Sandeep Kokate, a farmer from Yeola taluka, 35.3 km from Lasalgaon, Nasik, said, “I had nearly 500 quintals of onions in stock and suddenly, due to heavy rainfall and fungal infection [Anthracnose], nearly 70 per cent of my stock got destroyed. I ...

Republic World

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday praised the Centre for the agriculture and labour reform bills recently passed in Parliament, and said new policies should aim to make farmers aware of the modern agriculture science.

Addressing the Sangh’s annual Vijayadashami rally here which was this time attended by only 50 ‘swayamsevaks’ due to the COVID-19 guidelines, he also welcomed the government’s new education policy.

Stressing on self-reliance, he said while designing the agricultural policy, farmers should be empowered to control their seed banks, create manure, fertilisers and pesticides on their own or procure from neighbouring areas.

The Goan

The struggles of the Aldona farmers are unending. Just when the paddy crop was ripe for harvesting, they had to face an unusual problem – lack of harvester machines to reap the crop.

The farmers, who were already worried about the loss of crop due to low pressures-induced incessant rain in October, have to now contend with a shortage of machines to harvest the mature crop.

A visit to the vast fields in the village shows the pitiable condition of the crops with `lodging’ taking place at several places. At other places, farmers complained that the paddy has sprouted damaging the crop.