Structural problems in India's agri-markets were starkly revealed in 2018

With production steadily outstripping demand over the past few years, farmers found themselves squeezed between falling prices and high debt burdens. Domestic markets are controlled by a middleman monopoly and export markets are restricted, so the government’s options for boosting prices were narrowed to raising procurement prices, which had little traction.  

The tone for the year was set by the massive farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh in 2017, in which five farmers were killed. 

Sensing a growing constituency, political parties were mobilised in 2018 with an eye on the polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, each of which