Desicritics Comments on A Tale of Three Farmers

Comment by bd

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:32:36 EDT

Nothing unfortunate about it, Sanjay. Nowhere I said that Reliance will take care of all farmers, but the politicans are making sure that the farmers it CAN help are not being helped. Why would you assume that Reliance would purchase every kg? That's a bit silly. And Sanjay, people will benefit and people will not, that's sort of obvious, dont you think? But when there are more people who are losing out for the past 60 years, you need to recognise that it is a structural issue. So who do you think is responsible for these structural issues? Give you one hint, its politicians and their moronic economic policies.

Comment by Sanjay Garg

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:34:33 EDT

This article unfortunately paints a partial picture. While it is undeniable that the Reliance deal helps farmers in a number of ways, we should keep in mind that it will help only a percentage of the farmers. Of necessity, Reliance simply cannot commit to buying every KG of produce from each and every farmer in U.P. Therefore, we need to recognize that there are those that benefit and others that don't. Needless to say, all sides have the democratic right to make their respective cases. It is false to make this a case of politicans vs farmers.

Comment by Chandra

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:08:01 EDT

BD Excellent piece. I worked closely with a private company buying cane directly from the farmers. This company had a continuous system to maintain SLAs with farmers (Support services and buying). These farmers were much better off selling to this company than going to the mandi. On the issue of farmer suicides I read a recent report that blamed greed for a major cause of farmer suicides. rgds

Comment by Savani Tatake

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:27:37 EDT

I think the government should just stay out of private business. If they get out of the way, businesses and enterprenuership will flourish.