Politics and bad economics have led to the current agricultural crisis in India
With around 65% of India’s agriculture depending on rain and more than half the population on agriculture, too little or too much rain is always a harbinger of trouble. On occasions like these, accusations of the government of the day being anti-farmer replace all other charges in polemics. Something similar has happened this year, as erratic weather has fuelled a new cycle of distress in rural India.
What is often lost in the din though is what exactly the anti-farmer policies being referred to are. After all, a government cannot be blamed for the fury of the rain god. Is it only a question of providing temporary relief? Or is it the case that a particular set of policies has been used to favour the non-farm sector over agriculture?
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