The Shadow of England in India’s Farm Protests
Faster urbanization and quicker economic growth await. But, first, New Delhi has to make agricultural reforms palatable to farmers.
Farmers protests on the outskirts of Amritsar, in the state of Punjab
Photographer: NARINDER NANU/AFPWhere is it cheaper to buy rice? At a village market in India, a country where 377 million people live below the poverty line? Or on the trading screens of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?
Shockingly, it’s often the latter. Rough rice futures on the CME averaged $12.63 per hundredweight since the start of September and traded as low as $11.85, equivalent to about $233 a metric ton. Meanwhile, the minimum support price at which India’s government buys unmilled rice from farmers has been fixed at 1,868 rupees per quintal in the same marketing year, or $254 a ton at average exchange rates.