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Why India's plan to sell rice for ethanol undermines food and water security
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Agriculture
Facilitating investment in organic food business through the right policies
The Indian government has undertaken several policy initiatives to promote organic farming and organic food exports, and many domestic and foreign companies have responded positively to these measures. This column reports findings from a survey of 75 companies that sought to understand their views on the growth potential of this sector and what policies can support the growth.
Middleman margins and market structure in West Bengal potato supply chains
Potato farmers in West Bengal sell to local middlemen because they lack direct access to wholesale markets. Middleman margins are large and there is negligible pass-through from wholesale to farm-gate prices. Farmers are uninformed about downstream wholesale and retail prices. This column finds that providing farmers with wholesale price information has negligible average effects on farm-gate sales and revenues, but increases pass-through from wholesale to farm-gate prices.
Demonetisation, cattle slaughter ban, and India's cyclical agrarian crisis
In this article, Parag Waknis discusses why India’s rural economy is always on the precipice of crisis, and how the recent shocks of demonetisation and cattle slaughter ban exacerbated the crisis by destroying rural incomes and choking off farmer’s main source of emergency funding, respectively.
Are farm loan waivers really so bad?
Recent announcements by various state governments of their intent to waive farm loans to varying extents have been strongly criticised by the media and other commentators. In this article, Dr Pronab Sen examines the validity of the claims on which this opposition is based.
Hazards of farm loan waivers
In theory, debt waivers are expected to induce the optimal level of effort from the debtor for loan repayment. However, repeated waivers may distort household expectations about credit contract enforcements in the future. This column analyses the effect of Uttar Pradesh’s state-level debt waiver programme – announced right after India’s nationwide Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme – on consumption and investment behaviour of households.
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