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Monday, February 15, 2021

India’s Attempt to Reform its Agricultural Sector - Historical Perspective

The Shadow of England in India’s Farm Protests
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-10/india-s-farm-protests-have-parallels-in-18th-century-england-for-better-or-worse
Faster urbanization and quicker economic growth await. But, first, New Delhi has to make agricultural reforms palatable to farmers.
David Fickling and Andy Mukherjee:
“Where is it cheaper to buy rice? At a village market in India, a country where 377 million people live below the poverty line? Or on the trading screens of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?
Shockingly, it’s often the latter. Rough rice futures on the CME averaged $12.63 per hundredweight since the start of September and traded as low as $11.85, equivalent to about $233 a metric ton. Meanwhile, the minimum support price at which India’s government buys unmilled rice from farmers has been fixed at 1,868 rupees per quintal in the same marketing year, or $254 a ton at average exchange rates.
The gap is even wider for wheat, whose minimum support price has averaged a 25% premium to soft winter wheat futures in Chicago in the current marketing year” 

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