Researchers associated with Pennsylvania University’s India study centre looked at agricultural markets of Bihar, Odisha and Punjab. They found that intermediaries are a rational response to the dominant structure of Indian farming.
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I rember once Mr . J Scindia , firmer Congress Minister znd nkw zBJP Mp from Madhya Pradesh stating that farmers were selling their Garlic crop @Rs 1.59 per kg, whereas the market rate in Goa was Rs 100 per kg.
I read a newsport in some English daily of Goa, wherein it was reported that a young garlic farmer committed Suicide as the Local Mandi Rate was very much below his cost of production. Poor had contracted some extra land as the previous year the price was very good.
I saw a small yiutibe in Marathi, where a marginal Maratha farmer takes his onions to thr local mandi far away from his village. The Man incharge of the Mandi gives a good rate but then deducts transport and Coolie charges from his amount.
If we go to sell our home grown bananas, papayas, vegetables, mangoes, Black pepoer etc the Vendirs buy it at half the rate of their Selling Price.
This is the hirrible state of our Marginal Farners. I filly support thr Farmers demand that MSP is A MUST and the total produce of a marginal farmer should be procured by the Mandi at the prevailing MSP. THIS WILL IMPROVE THE LIFE OF A POOR FARMER IN INDIA
From what I read, it seems that the prevailing system of MSP will be retained as it is. Right or wrong? I also believe that the small farmers are excluded fro this process of current MSP May be farmer co-operatives in the mould of milk co-operatives may be the answer.
He is supporting the existing system of mandis which is the only market under APMC where farmers can sell. Once they are in the market, they cannot take out their produce. Price discovery and decision to sell is not in the control of farmer producers but by operators in this restricted market. They are forced to sell at whatever price they are offered. These left oriented expat Indian academicians and their peers are pursuing a political agenda and citing research, which no one knows whether they are extensively peer vetted
DO THE PEOPLE IN USA KNOW MORE ABOUT THE INDIAN CONDITIONS? OR IS IS JUST THE GORA SYNDROME, THAT NEED TO GIVE SPACE TO OVER AND ABOVE THE INDIAN EXPERTS?
1) Given that you most likely use a smartphone and an internet browser, they actually do. For example, your pinpoint location and your psychological biases, many of which you might not know yourself.
2) Affiliation / employment doesn’t necessarily make anyone Indian / American / Gora / Brown. For an analogy, you can work in any American corporation without being American.
2) Rationally comment on the merits or demerits, and don’t bullshit around. We were colonized because we were too busy with our dogmatism and infighting when others were having scientific revolution.
3) The so-called Indian experts generally have opinions on everything but typically no evidence and fieldwork to objectively back those. The report mentions that these guys collected primary data from field and had a team across India for over a year.
Ankur, you sure do make some valid points. But….
Let us not be in awe of the West. There are strengths and frailties in every country. Let us not presume that all Indian work (including surveys) in general is inferior to those done elsewhere especially in the West. Most Western surveys, any survey for that matter, produce raw data. We have technology to quickly process raw data with many variables peculiar to particular situations and geographies. You can’t expect that similar data from Bangladesh (a small largely homogenous Nation) ,India (a vast heterogenous federal state) and USA (a “superrich” economy)can be handled with the same logic. The variables that affect the raw data will differ in each case. Most Western surveys overlook this aspect.
All is not hunky-dory, say in the USA for instance. Here too there is discrimination, malnutrition, poverty, et al. There is a section here in USA who are worried that the very huge debt burden (indiscriminate printing of dollars) will one day, not in the distant future, wreck its economy. The politics is not that decent. Here is a sample of one survey of deaths due to coronavirus in the USA. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race
“Our latest update reveals that Black and Indigenous Americans continue to suffer the greatest losses—with both groups now experiencing a COVID-19 death toll exceeding 1 in 800 nationally. And for the first time since we began tracking these data, the Indigenous rate exceeds the rate for Blacks.” Is there a pattern?
We should be aware that here in the USA, there sure is a propensity in a large section of the media to show developing Nations, especially India, in poor light – with some truths and many half-truths.
These are the kind of inane studies that result from excess money and idle minds. If they can, the B & M Gates Foundation must ensure that their funds are used more sensibly.
Rational political response for a govt facing impending doom after window dressing fiscal deficit figures for 6 years by not paying FCI: gradually dismantle it in the name of farmers. The other rationalizations seem more of a cover. With low productivity, and so many farmers, we obviously cannot compete globally anywhere (that too in the face of billions of dollars of subsidies by developed countries to keep their few thousand farmers in business).
Yes, you got everything terribly wrong. You haven’t read the column with your undivided attention. It clearly and empathetically says that, “They (researchers) found that intermediaries are a rational response to the dominant structure of Indian farming.” So if the intermediaries (middlemen) are a rational (right) response to the dominant structure of Indian farming, then how does the question of the farmers selling to the middlemen arise? Of course they can sell to the middlemen, as they have been doing.
Yes, Rohit
In either case if the farmer wishes( feels he gets a better price there) to sell to the intermediary, as you say, he is free to do so. Right? or have I again got it wrong? The farmer should be the judge and he should be allowed to do so
The government says that farmers can sell to anyone including middlemen. Are these people going to buy at MSP or above?
I will give you my experience in Goa. Whenever we take our coconuts, mangoes, bananas, limes, black pepper, home grown vegetables to sell to Vendors , they purchase at half price of their Selling Price..
This is typically what happens to all marginal farmers throughout India
Yes JV, the small farmers…
Will farmer co-operatives like the the milk co-operatives work? If so, nothing stops the local administrations to create such cooperatives.
I rember once Mr . J Scindia , firmer Congress Minister znd nkw zBJP Mp from Madhya Pradesh stating that farmers were selling their Garlic crop @Rs 1.59 per kg, whereas the market rate in Goa was Rs 100 per kg.
I read a newsport in some English daily of Goa, wherein it was reported that a young garlic farmer committed Suicide as the Local Mandi Rate was very much below his cost of production. Poor had contracted some extra land as the previous year the price was very good.
I saw a small yiutibe in Marathi, where a marginal Maratha farmer takes his onions to thr local mandi far away from his village. The Man incharge of the Mandi gives a good rate but then deducts transport and Coolie charges from his amount.
If we go to sell our home grown bananas, papayas, vegetables, mangoes, Black pepoer etc the Vendirs buy it at half the rate of their Selling Price.
This is the hirrible state of our Marginal Farners. I filly support thr Farmers demand that MSP is A MUST and the total produce of a marginal farmer should be procured by the Mandi at the prevailing MSP. THIS WILL IMPROVE THE LIFE OF A POOR FARMER IN INDIA
From what I read, it seems that the prevailing system of MSP will be retained as it is. Right or wrong? I also believe that the small farmers are excluded fro this process of current MSP May be farmer co-operatives in the mould of milk co-operatives may be the answer.
He is supporting the existing system of mandis which is the only market under APMC where farmers can sell. Once they are in the market, they cannot take out their produce. Price discovery and decision to sell is not in the control of farmer producers but by operators in this restricted market. They are forced to sell at whatever price they are offered. These left oriented expat Indian academicians and their peers are pursuing a political agenda and citing research, which no one knows whether they are extensively peer vetted
DO THE PEOPLE IN USA KNOW MORE ABOUT THE INDIAN CONDITIONS? OR IS IS JUST THE GORA SYNDROME, THAT NEED TO GIVE SPACE TO OVER AND ABOVE THE INDIAN EXPERTS?
1) Given that you most likely use a smartphone and an internet browser, they actually do. For example, your pinpoint location and your psychological biases, many of which you might not know yourself.
2) Affiliation / employment doesn’t necessarily make anyone Indian / American / Gora / Brown. For an analogy, you can work in any American corporation without being American.
2) Rationally comment on the merits or demerits, and don’t bullshit around. We were colonized because we were too busy with our dogmatism and infighting when others were having scientific revolution.
3) The so-called Indian experts generally have opinions on everything but typically no evidence and fieldwork to objectively back those. The report mentions that these guys collected primary data from field and had a team across India for over a year.
Ankur, you sure do make some valid points. But….
Let us not be in awe of the West. There are strengths and frailties in every country. Let us not presume that all Indian work (including surveys) in general is inferior to those done elsewhere especially in the West. Most Western surveys, any survey for that matter, produce raw data. We have technology to quickly process raw data with many variables peculiar to particular situations and geographies. You can’t expect that similar data from Bangladesh (a small largely homogenous Nation) ,India (a vast heterogenous federal state) and USA (a “superrich” economy)can be handled with the same logic. The variables that affect the raw data will differ in each case. Most Western surveys overlook this aspect.
All is not hunky-dory, say in the USA for instance. Here too there is discrimination, malnutrition, poverty, et al. There is a section here in USA who are worried that the very huge debt burden (indiscriminate printing of dollars) will one day, not in the distant future, wreck its economy. The politics is not that decent. Here is a sample of one survey of deaths due to coronavirus in the USA.
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race
“Our latest update reveals that Black and Indigenous Americans continue to suffer the greatest losses—with both groups now experiencing a COVID-19 death toll exceeding 1 in 800 nationally. And for the first time since we began tracking these data, the Indigenous rate exceeds the rate for Blacks.” Is there a pattern?
We should be aware that here in the USA, there sure is a propensity in a large section of the media to show developing Nations, especially India, in poor light – with some truths and many half-truths.
These are the kind of inane studies that result from excess money and idle minds. If they can, the B & M Gates Foundation must ensure that their funds are used more sensibly.
Rational political response for a govt facing impending doom after window dressing fiscal deficit figures for 6 years by not paying FCI: gradually dismantle it in the name of farmers. The other rationalizations seem more of a cover. With low productivity, and so many farmers, we obviously cannot compete globally anywhere (that too in the face of billions of dollars of subsidies by developed countries to keep their few thousand farmers in business).
When farmers can sell to anyone….they can sell to middlemen too. Have I got anything wrong?
As it is there are enough problems in the USA for study.
Yes, you got everything terribly wrong. You haven’t read the column with your undivided attention. It clearly and empathetically says that, “They (researchers) found that intermediaries are a rational response to the dominant structure of Indian farming.” So if the intermediaries (middlemen) are a rational (right) response to the dominant structure of Indian farming, then how does the question of the farmers selling to the middlemen arise? Of course they can sell to the middlemen, as they have been doing.
Yes, Rohit
In either case if the farmer wishes( feels he gets a better price there) to sell to the intermediary, as you say, he is free to do so. Right? or have I again got it wrong? The farmer should be the judge and he should be allowed to do so
The government says that farmers can sell to anyone including middlemen. Are these people going to buy at MSP or above?
I will give you my experience in Goa. Whenever we take our coconuts, mangoes, bananas, limes, black pepper, home grown vegetables to sell to Vendors , they purchase at half price of their Selling Price..
This is typically what happens to all marginal farmers throughout India
Yes JV, the small farmers…
Will farmer co-operatives like the the milk co-operatives work? If so, nothing stops the local administrations to create such cooperatives.
Col… you are absolutely right.