Prayers have been answered, monsoon has made landfall in Kerala, close to where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498. Potentially, the impact on political fortunes will be no less. This government has promised to double farm incomes in six years and economists argued that this would be impossible because it would entail a 12% annual growth in incomes; unprecedented globally. Starting from such abysmally low farm income base line the upsurge is but inevitable.
The cyclic upswing of international commodity prices that was expected this year has been postponed due to the collapse of the Brazilian currency ‘Real’. Like its predecessors the government is artificially keeping farm gate prices low to rein inflation.
In the absence of government interference, a combination of good monsoon and the anticipated price correction would double farm incomes without even a single sitting of an inter-ministerial committee set-up for the purpose. The proposed committee sans a single farmer member is only as useful as a dry well. The UPA appointed NAC was similarly inadequately peopled, consequently the continuance of farmer suicides.
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