Agriculture

Understanding agricultural policy in India through the lens of free markets — from APMC reform and contract farming to the economics of minimum support prices.

Syllabus

Books

  1. The Mystery of Capital — Hernando de Soto

Academic Papers

  1. Article on agriculture's exclusion from India's 1991 reforms — The Economics Journal
  2. Seminar paper on farm size and productivity — Mark Rosenzweig, Boston University
  3. Paper on Indian land reform — Maitreesh Ghatak, LSE
  4. Working Paper 283 — ICRIER, on FCI and food-grain procurement
  5. Paper on post-harvest food loss in India — ScienceDirect
  6. Paper on the development of India's food processing sector — Springer

Legal Statutes & Notifications

  1. Essential Commodities Act, 1955
  2. Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992
  3. Indian Contract Act, 1872
  4. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020
  5. Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Model Act, 2018
  6. National Food Security Act, 2013
  7. 2020 export notification on onions — APEDA
  8. 2022 export notification on wheat — DGFT
  9. 2022 export notification on rice — DGFT

Reports

  1. Primer on Indian agricultural policy — Centre for Civil Society
  2. Economic Survey, chapter on agriculture
  3. State of Agriculture in India — PRS Legislative Research
  4. Report on U.S. farm size — USDA
  5. Demand for Grants Analysis 2025-26: Agriculture & Farmers Welfare — PRS Legislative Research
  6. Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2025: India — OECD
  7. Raising Agricultural Productivity and Making Farming Remunerative for Farmers — NITI Aayog
  8. Land law report — Centre for Civil Society
  9. Report of the Expert Committee and Model Law on Agricultural Land Leasing — NITI Aayog
  10. Droughts and the Sugar Industry in Maharashtra — Global Water Partnership
  11. The Human Cost of Sugar: Maharashtra Case — Oxfam India
  12. Dismantling the Mandi Monopoly: A Manifesto for Agricultural Marketing Reform — SPMRF
  13. New Farm Acts 2020 — NITI Aayog
  14. Evolving Landscape of Warehousing and Logistics in India — Grant Thornton
  15. Report No. 20 of 2023: Performance Audit on FCI — CAG
  16. Report on contract farming — FAO

Articles & Blog Posts

  1. Madhya Pradesh farmers hold funeral for onions as prices crash — NDTV
  2. Onion prices soar to Rs 80 in Delhi, Mumbai — Hindustan Times
  3. India's Cold Chain: A Case of Crippled and Complex Infrastructure — Manufacturing Today India
  4. Is Land Digitisation Enough? — Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
  5. Punjab Farmers Struggle Amidst Plummeting Groundwater Levels — IndiaSpend
  6. MSP and Public Procurement — PRS Legislative Research
  7. Karnataka: Over 50% Trade Shifts Out of APMCs, Revenue Hit — Times of India
  8. India's Broken Cold Chain Is a Rs 2-3 Trillion Bottleneck — Financial Express
  9. FCI's Central Pool Stocks Strong in October 2025 — iGrain
  10. India's Deepening Farm Crisis: 76% Farmers Want to Give Up Farming — Down To Earth
  11. Does Contract Farming Work? — The India Forum
  12. Understanding the Mandi System in India — Lokmarg