Farmers on the brink

The ongoing unrest is a result of policy failures

It is paradoxical that at a time when agricultural productivity is a leading contributor to the country’s economic growth, farmers find themselves on the brink. The single common factor behind the current wave of farmers’ protests in several states is the deep-rooted economic distress due to market failings and flawed government policies. On the face of it, the demands for loan waivers in several states might have been triggered by the Uttar Pradesh government’s Rs 36,000-crore debt write-off, yet the foundations of the current distress were laid by many other policy failures. Of course, local factors, too, have contributed. The