How can India guarantee crop prices for farmers? Govt weighs options

Farmers have been demanding that it should introduce a mechanism to either ensure support prices by purchasing enough quantities or directly compensate them for their potential losses

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to double farm incomes by 2022. The most cost-effective way of fulfilling that may be by compensating farmers with cash when market prices of crops fall below support rates, a government adviser said.

The plan is one among three suggestions being discussed by the National Institution for Transforming India, a government think-tank also known as NITI Aayog, which has been tasked to find ways to ensure farmers’ get at least 50 percent more than the production cost for their crops even when prices slump.

The two other options are the purchase of crops by government agencies