Re:250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
by glasss on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @11:13AM
(#25266445)
I'm not well versed (or even poorly versed) in agriculture economics but isn't this what the United States does to a certain degree? I know some farmers get subsidies but I'm not sure how / why.
Re:250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
by 0xFFFE on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @11:19AM
(#25266519)
most farmers in India are very poor, they depend on the profit from the crops to do anything in their families. Example, marriage of their kdis, fixing their house etc. Most of them have small patches of land and depend entirely on monsoon rains.
So if the rains fail in a given year OR the supply is too high in the market, farmers don't even break even.
So to protect farmers, Govt of India and the state govts provide lot of subsidies and incentives. Here is a short list: 1) They don't pay taxes on their income. 2) Get loans at a very low interest rates. Most of the time loans are waived off. 3) They don't pay for the electricity used for farming. 4) They get subsidized prices on the seeds, fertilizers etc.
Re:250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
by dilutedh2o on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @11:10AM
(#25266407)
what about the people who don't want the market needlessly inflated by price floors?
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/222040.pdf
TL;DR: Until now, farmers were at the mercy of middlemen to sell their produce. With the new act Farmers are free to sell it to anyone [E.g grocery chains] directly in addition to the Govt guaranteed minimum price [a.k.a MSP] So if Market price > MSP; Sell directly in the market. Else, govt will purchase the produce at a minimum guaranteed price. So in essence, govt is protecting the interests of the farmers. The current protests are an amalgamation of disgruntled middlemen who are going to lose fat profits and some political parties trying to get mileage out of it.