Sorrows Of A Bumper Yield

The government must assure farmers that they will not bear the cost of keeping inflation low

- Siraj Hussain

IN 1993, during my first session of mba at the University of Hull, UK, we (mostly Indian and Chinese civil servants) were asked if we had ever sold anything in our life. Most of us answered in the negative and were told that producing any commodity is far easier than selling it.

The Indian farmer faces the challenge of selling his/her produce at a profit at the end of every crop season. Since 85 per cent of the operational landholdings are less than 2 hectares, these small farmers are in no position to take their produce to far-off mandis even if the prices there are higher. They are, thus, forced to either sell to a village aggregator or go to the nearest mandi and sell at whatever price is being offered by arhatiyas