Smart Farming

How a host of corporates are partnering with Indian farmers for a win-win yield and lessening agrarian distress.

- Joe C.Mathew

Is there a concrete plan to link the farmers with the markets?” The question was posed to the Narendra Modi government by a Member of Parliament during the just concluded winter session. The 25-day-long Parliament session, which saw path-breaking legislation like 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections, witnessed lawmakers from different parts of the country wonder why market prices of 10 out of the 14 kharif (summer) crops were lower than their minimum support prices (MSPs) during the harvest season in October 2018 or whether there was any proposal to waive off loans of farmers up to 3 lakh. Overall, there were about 400 queries from the 789-memberstrong Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on issues specific to the agrarian economy. Crisis in agriculture seems to be troubling every second lawmaker.