Agriculture

In Punjab’s Grain Mandis, the Afterlife of the Farm Protests is Playing Out

Rice procurement by the state in Punjab’s regulated markets has plummeted this year. In the mundane details of grain purchases lie hidden and fraught centre-state relations and reforms by stealth.
▶21-Nov-2024
Shreya Sinha

Solar Pumps are Key to Bihar’s Rural Electrification Strategy

Bihar’s strategy of accelerating pump electrification may expand irrigation but unauthorised pumps and unpaid tariffs will create anarchy in the rural grid and hinder rural development. However,…
▶19-Nov-2024
Tushaar Shah, Meenakshi Singh, Naveen Patidar

The Green Revolution is a Warning, not a Blueprint for Feeding a Hungry Planet

It is doubtful that the Green Revolution produced any more food than would have been produced anyway. What increased dramatically was dependence on imported fertiliser.
▶05-Oct-2023
Glenn Davis Stone

A Looming Crisis in Fertilisers

India needs to urgently take measures to improve fertiliser availability in the short and long term. The absence of major investments since the 1990s, and now the Ukraine war and the Chinese ban on…
▶09-May-2022
M.P. Sukumaran Nair

Raindrop in the Drought

Godavari Dange developed a model of farming that enabled vulnerable women farmers in drought-struck Marathwada to stay food secure. Her life story captures the enormity of the region’s crisis, as…
▶02-Feb-2022
Reetika Revathy Subramanian, Maitri Dore

Women Bring a Spring of Hope to the Farm Movement

Women have been reinforcing the farmers’ protests on Delhi’s borders, right from the beginning. Their experiences of the agrarian crisis are broadening the demands of the movement beyond defending…
▶05-May-2021
Navsharan Singh

Jats into Kisans

The decline of farmer identity from the 1990s brought a generation of upwardly mobile Jats close to the BJP. The waning of urban economic opportunities has reminded youth of the security from ties to…
▶01-Apr-2021
Satendra Kumar

Jat Power and the Spread of the Farm Protests in Northern India

The combination of caste & farmer identity amongst the Jats in western UP uniquely strengthens the resistance to the farm laws, but also creates barriers to creating lasting solidarities with…
▶31-Mar-2021
Jens Lerche

India’s Deregulated Dairy Sector Signposts the Future of Our Food

The result of the deregulation of the dairy sector holds a mirror to what would happen if the new farm laws were to be implemented in agriculture: an easing out of the small producer, greater…
▶30-Mar-2021
Sagari R. Ramdas

Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab

The crises of Punjab’s agriculture are rooted in the same history that made it the granary of India. Ensuring sustainability for farmers and the farm sector requires an engagement with the shifting…
▶09-Mar-2021
Surinder S. Jodhka