The upsurge of violent protests by farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh comes in the wake of seething discontent in the agricultural sector across India. Farmers have been contending with a range of problems, from lack of water to declining soil quality and rising input costs. Where they have overcome these issues and improved productivity, they have found themselves being denied fair prices.
While the knee-jerk political response has been to write off bank loans, the solutions that farmers need are in fact much more complex. There is no silver bullet. Reducing indebtedness provides relief, but the real. . .
