Improve market linkage: Reducing farm distress requires more than MSP hike

The ongoing 10-day farmers’ strike involving blockage of vegetable and milk supplies to the cities and the mixed response to it from farmers as well as the central and state governments lends itself to two critical interpretations — both of which are fairly disquieting. First, it is yet another manifestation of the lingering unease in rural areas due to low incomes and heavy indebtedness that has remained unaddressed or partially addressed. Not much headway has been made in fulfiling even the promises made to farmers in the recent past. These include the Centre’s pledge to fix minimum support prices (MSPs)