Agri Bill protests: Open market not necessarily beneficial for farmers, says Devinder Sharma

The farmers' protest, as well as talks with the government, continue and so far there has been no breakthrough. Representatives from over 30 farmer bodies met top government ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal, for the second time today, in a bid to break the deadlock.

Weighing in on the crucial issue of minimum support price (MSP) agri economist Devinder Sharma said, “I think the time has come where we should legalise or announce that MSP becomes a legal right for the farmers. Why I am saying this is because for the last four decades at least that I have followed Indian agriculture, it has been a victim of the volatility of markets and farmers have suffered consequently. I have always said that agriculture has been deliberately kept impoverished to keep the economic reforms alive.”

On the 'open market is beneficial' argument Sharma said, “In America, for last 6-7 decades open markets have been in operation and the latest that I read is that farmers are saddled with USD 425 billion bankruptcy. Open markets haven’t necessarily been beneficial for farmers even in developed countries. We need to learn that if the reforms have failed elsewhere, how do you think that they will be work in India?"