Not surprisingly, farmers are unhappy and agriculture is stagnant. Farmer suicides are perversely high and rural indebtedness remains a grave issue. As the Modi government celebrates two years in office, any review of its functioning will be incomplete without examining its record on the farm front. In the two years (FY15 and FY16), while the economy grew at 7.2 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively, agriculture and the allied sector grew at -0.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent. This implies an average growth rate of less than 0.5 per cent per annum of the sector that employs close to half the country’s labour force. Two years ago, the current government’s election manifesto promised, among other...
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