Agricultural Market System and the Problem of Farmers in West Bengal (original) (raw)

DICHOTOMY OF AGRARIAN MARKET IN UTTAR PRADESH VS VISION 2022: FROM BOARD TO CHAOS AMONG FARMERS

Kaav Publication, 2018

The budget of the Board and its allocation clearly resemble the state priorities to the agrarian sector. However, this nexus of the regulated market has expanded due to the priority is given to erecting the mandi infrastructure in the Uttar Pradesh state economy. No Doubt it is praiseworthy that the allocation of Board expenditure raises the income of mandi samities in Uttar Pradesh but it is also an undeniable truth that the APMC model act not able to ensure the farmer's regarding a fair price. Furthermore, it seems that the APMC Act is indirectly benefiting the parasitic class of intermediaries and not to the farmer's that ought to be. Using the primary data from the four respective mandi samities mainly the Lucknow, Raebareli, Unnao & Laalganj mandi, the farmer's participation in Agriculture Mandies of Uttar Pradesh state have been crafted. The survey revealed the forged picture, that the several schemes of the board are not showing optimum usage by farmers in these mandies at ground level. This present paper divulges that asymmetric information exists between farmers and inter-mediators. In the prevailing condition of asymmetric information, the Mandi Samities could not act accordingly to the farmer's interest. The process of bidding and fixation of price in these mandies is not in the favor of the farmer's as the seasonal crop arriving in these mandies increase the supply of Agril produce that lose their bargain power in terms of fetching a fair and genuine price. Therefore the achievement of vision 2022 depends to a greater extent on the fact that the bidding procedure should be removed as a price mechanism and fixation of profit margin should be opted via amendment in the APMC act for the welfare and raising the farmer's income.

Agricultural Reforms in India

Indian Public Policy Review

Issue: Jan-Feb 2021 This paper explores the recent farm laws passed by parliament and their impact on farmers’ income. The laws collectively offer greater freedom to cultivators to sell their produce at better prices and allow farmers to enter into contracts with processors, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers and exporters at mutually agreed crop prices. The laws also encourage private investment into storage and warehousing by removing stockholding limits. To make these reforms work, some conditions may have to be fulfilled and imperfections and concerns have to be addressed, which are elaborated in the paper. Finally, the paper focuses on other agricultural reforms to improve the supply-side factors, such as rationalization of subsidies, land reforms, use of technology, strengthening institutions and governance, and improving rural infrastructure.

Punjab and Bihar Structure of Markets and Prices in Agriculture: Empirical Findings from

Using primary household survey data, this paper attempts to study the market structure and price behaviour for major crops in Punjab and Bihar. As expected, Punjab farmers were highly commercial, producing more than four-fi fth of their output for the market. Bihar farmers, on the other hand, were still subsistence-oriented producing more than half their output for self-consumption. The price index, however, ruled out any discrimination against marginal or small farmers in both states. Signifi cant variables determining marketed surplus in the regression analysis were output, farm and family size, market channels, etc. The factors determining farm price were marketed surplus/value of output, prevalence of credit and availability of formal market channels. The fi ndings of the study present a contrasting picture of two states whereby agricultural marketing in Punjab is in an advanced stage while Bihar's agricultural marketing set-up is still evolving.

FEATURES OF THE AGRARIAN MARKET IN ODISHA: INSIGHTS FROM A FIELD SURVEY

Man & Development, 2020

This paper explores agrarian relations in Odisha and the changes occurred therein in recent years when the state's agriculture is undergoing a pervasive agrarian crisis. On the basis of primary data collected from four villages, it finds that the volume of agricultural employment as well as long-term labour contracts are on a decline. While the structure of tenancy in partially irrigated villages has not undergone any major change in the past years, absentee landlordism as well as leasing under fixed rent in cash is on rise, while fixed produce tenancy is declining in the irrigated villages. Though non-farm opportunities generated in nearby urban areas are mostly precarious and insecure in nature, they have helped rural households in sustaining their livelihoods. These opportunities along with an improved coverage of banks and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in extending credit have helped in loosening the bond of unfreedom in labour relations to some extent. Given the fact that the process of withdrawal of rural workforce from agriculture is very slow, the state agencies must intervene to bring agricultural sector out of the crisis through higher public investment in the form of harnessing irrigation potential available in the state, extension of credit and legitimising land leasing in the state. A couple of features characterise Odisha's agriculture. Cereal crops account for about 90 per cent of the acreage area; over 92 per cent of holdings are either marginal or small encompassing 81 per cent of cultivated area, while large landholdings account for less than 0.5 per cent of the total holdings and 0.8 per cent of the acreage area. Crop productivity despite showing improvement over the years is still lower than crop productivity of most crops at the national level. Agricultural wages too continue to remain lower than the wages at all-India level. Agriculture continues to suffer from poor investment and low capital formation.

Agriculture Marketing in India: Perspectives on Reforms and Doubling Farmers' Income

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness Vol. 16(3) 2022, 2022

India's target of achieving a $5 trillion economy by the financial year 2025-26 needs to be supported by a transformed and reformed agriculture sector, which would significantly improve the income of farmers. It is, therefore, imperative that the agriculture sector should support the milestone by focusing on transformative reforms. The paper examines the critical challenges faced by Indian farmers in the existing agriculture marketing system, while proposing an agenda for agriculture marketing and export reforms for making farming financially sustainable. It underscores the urgency for the development of rural infrastructure and efficient agri-value chains. The paper highlights the need for encouraging small and marginal farm holders to move from subsistence farming to modern farm enterprises. The electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), is expected to lead to significant increase in income of farmers. Effective implementation of comprehensive agricultural reforms, with a focus on agriculture marketing reforms, could lead to sustainability of Indian agriculture, and facilitate the achievement of doubling farmers' income by 2024-25, while mitigating agrarian distress.

Agricultural Marketing System in Odisha: A Case Study of Bargarh and Balangir Districts

2021

The paper discusses on the factor responsidle for the mode of disposal of agricultural produce and problem and prospects of agricultural farmers. The present paper is based on the analysis undertaken in Bargarh and Balangir district of Odisha, India. This paper also discusses the existing agricultural marketing system in rural areas of Odisha and the role of intermediaries / local village traders in agricultural marketing system. Majority numbers of farmers were exploited by the local village traders. Farmers were sold their produce to village traders at very low price while the MSP of that produce is high. Inefficient agricultural market system present in rural Odisha.

Farming Laws BJP's Strategic Vision of Strengthening Agro business Capitalism and Hindu Nationalism 1

The Indian Farmers' Protest of 2020-2021 Agrarian Crisis, Dissent and Identity , 2025

This chapter could be considered an immediate response to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's widely circulated claim that the three farming ordinances promulgated by the government on 5 June 2020 were marketing reforms in agriculture aimed at increasing the marketing choices and farm incomes of India's farming community. The farmers' organisations, especially in Punjab, where of all the Indian states the farmers' movement is most developed, responded initially by organising protests against the abolition of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism in the farming ordinances. My understanding, based on tracking the Indian state's policy towards agriculture both under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the BJP-led NDA governments, is that the significance of the so-called marketing reforms goes beyond the mere abolition of MSP and that they are aimed at stepping up the Centre's control over agriculture, which in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution is a state subject. For the BJP-led regime, the centralisation agenda had another objective: Hinduisation of the Indian state. My view was that coupled with this ideological objective of Hinduisation of the Indian state, this agrarian initiative of the BJP-led regime was aimed at strengthening the control of Indian agriculture by a select group of top industrial houses in the country who were politically aligned very closely with the BJP. To effectively communicate this significantly wider meaning of these reforms to the farmers' organisations in Punjab, which were agitating then mainly on the MSP issue, it was felt that the immediate need was to get this message circulated through the Punjabi media. Punjabi Tribune, the most respected Punjabi daily published from Chandigarh, had shown the most advanced understanding, from the very beginning, of the issues involved in this agrarian initiative of the BJP-led NDA government. Therefore, at an invitation from the Punjabi Tribune, an early version of this article was published in two parts on consecutive days (11 and 12 June 2020). This intervention had an electrifying impact on the direction of the farmers' movement the. Issues of federalism and corporate houses taking over agriculture started becoming central to their campaigns and mobilisation against the three farm laws.