Ashok Gulati
The writer is chair professor for agriculture at ICRIER. Views are personal
Articles By Ashok Gulati
Taxed through trade policies, farmers need stable income policy
Implicitly taxed through restrictive marketing and trade policies, farmers need a stable income policy.
An answer to rural distress
An income transfer policy combined with direct cash transfer is the best way to help the farmer
From plate to plough: If you want to help farmers
Loan waivers are poll bait. What is needed is a structured and stable income support policy.
Fields of ferment
Why assembly election verdicts should occasion a rethink on loan waivers, MSP raises
Quick fix for the farmer
In the absence of patience and vision, the loan waiver remains the most favoured response to farm distress
From plate to plough: Perils of over promising
Manifesto pledges to raise farmers’ incomes and increase MSPs take away focus from the structural reforms that are urgently required.
From Plate to Plough: Less crop per drop
Maharashtra needs to urgently address gross inequity in irrigation water distribution to deal with drought situations.
From Plate to Plough: Sardar’s unfinished task
The real tribute to Patel would be to carry out large-scale structural reforms in agri-markets to ensure that a higher percentage of the consumer’s rupee goes to farmers.
From food security to nutrition security
Biotechnology can be a game-changer in the battle against malnutrition in much the same way that the Green Revolution was in ensuring self sufficiency.
From Plate to Plough: Get smarter on the farm
Supporting agriculture through input subsidies is the ‘dumb’ approach. Priority must now be given to investment in the sector and ensuring farmers have access to the latest technologies.
From Plate to Plough: Drowning in sweetness
The sugar industry faces a crisis of plenty. Unless bold steps are taken quickly, it can prove costly to the Modi government.
From Plate to Plough: Maharashtra vs Market
State’s decision to make MSP mandatory for traders will lead to chaos. The way forward is to treat farmers as businessmen and facilitate an environment in which they can flourish.
How to pay a fitting tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s decision to allow cultivation of Bt cotton was transformative. Modi government must fulfill his vision by enlarging the scope of biotechnology in agriculture.
From Plate to Plough: Lean year as a foundation
NABARD’s new survey offers a baseline to double farmers’ incomes. But is a survey done in a drought year a reliable yardstick?
From Plate to Plough: Timidity and technology
Vajpayee government’s decision to introduce GM cotton made India a leader in production of the crop. Can the Modi government give a green signal to improve varieties of GM cotton and Bt brinjal and GM mustard?
From Plate to Plough: The limits of MSP
Instead of fiddling with procurement prices, government must devise an income policy for farmers.
Resolving the farmer-consumer binary
Reforms to domestic market regulations and direct benefit transfers for vulnerable sections of the population could be the win-win solution.
From plate to plough: Not all milk and honey
Only 21 per cent of India’s milk production gets processed through the organised sector and the rest passes through unorganised small players. And that’s where the crisis is most intense.
From Plate to Plough: Why farmers agitate
An efficient and sustainable solution for better prices really lies in ‘getting the markets right’ by overhauling the agri-marketing infrastructure and its associated laws.
From Plate to Plough: Pieces of a market
A single national agriculture market, promised by the BJP in its 2014 manifesto, remains a pipe dream. Can the government reform the broken APMC structure in the last year of its term?
