What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? | Episode 18 | Everything is Everything

India's farmers are suffering. Indian agriculture has been in crisis since we gained Independence. Why? What can we do about it?

Welcome to Episode 18 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss the many complicated problems of Indian agriculture, breaking them down one by one. Spoiler alert: the oppressive hand of the state is at the heart of it all. Us city slickers take some of our freedoms for granted -- but our farmers are still denied basic liberties. It's a tragedy.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:00 Teaser and packaging
00:51 Introduction: Ajay is a Tomato
03:33 Chapter 1: How Our Farmers are Hobbled
43:19 Chapter 2: The Problem of Land
50:33 Chapter 3: The Larger Problem
54:03 Chapter 4: Why MSPs are a Problem
1:00:36 Chapter 5: The Great Sharad Joshi
1:06:09 Chapter 6: A Modern Satyagraha
1:15:17 Chapter 7: Amit's Recco
1:17:00 Chapter 8: Ajay's Recco

USEFUL RESOURCES:

1. Amit on Twitter:   / amitvarma  
2. Ajay on Twitter:   / ajay_shah  
3. The Seen and the Unseen -- Amit's audio podcast: https://seenunseen.in/
(Also on all podcast apps. And YouTube, though less than 1% of listens come from here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSeenAndTh...)
4. Ajay's organisation, XKDR Forum, on YouTube:    / @xkdr  
5. In Service of the Republic -- Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah: https://amzn.eu/d/hwGILb3
6. The Art of Clear Writing -- Amit's writing course: https://indiauncut.com/clear-writing/
7. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah):    • Ep 211: The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills  
8. India’s Agriculture Crisis — Episode 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand):    • Ep. 140: India's Agriculture Crisis  
9. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi):    • Ep. 86: The State of Our Farmers  
10. Futures Markets in Agriculture -- Episode 12 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Shashidhar):    • Ep. 12: Futures Markets in Agriculture  
11. Entry and Exit in Agriculture -- Episode 1 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pavan Srinath and Karthik Shashidhar):    • Ep. 01: Entry and Exit in Agriculture  
12. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan):    • Ep. 26: Right To Property  
13. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer -- Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/tx5uc2un
14. We Must Save Our Farmers -- Amit Varma: https://www.thinkpragati.com/opinion/...
15. Farmers, Technology and Freedom of Choice: A Tale of Two Satyagrahas -- Amit Varma: https://tinyurl.com/yvr29a23
16. What happened to global food prices? -- Ajay Shah: https://tinyurl.com/2p94e74m
17. Economic freedom in agriculture -- Ajay Shah: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/...
18. India: An agricultural trade powerhouse -- Ajay Shah: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/...
19. Rhyme and Reason -- The archive of Amit Varma's limericks for the Times of India: https://indiauncut.com/category/rhyme...
20. The Price of Onions -- Ashok Desai: https://amzn.eu/d/6GMcpce
21. The Incredible Insights of Bastiat and Hayek -- Episode 6 of Everything is Everything:    • The Incredible Insights of Bastiat an...  
22. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything:    • Why Freedom Matters | Episode 10 | Ev...  
23. The Mystery Of Capital -- Hernando De Soto: https://amzn.eu/d/gdzUVIO
24. Our FSI Problem -- Episode 11 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok):    • Ep. 11: FSI (Floor Space Index)  
25. Climate change for practical people -- Ajay Shah: https://www.mayin.org/ajayshah/MEDIA/...
26. CMIE data: https://consumerpyramidsdx.cmie.com/
27. How I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes -- Episode 9 of Everything is Everything:    • How I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes | E...  
28. India's Water Crisis -- Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka zenrainman):    • Ep. 60: India's Water Crisis  
29. Sharad Joshi on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharad_...
30. Why the Future Doesn't Need Us -- Bill Joy: https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/
31. Down to Earth -- Sharad Joshi: https://amzn.eu/d/5xQ9WYf
32. Talking to an Empty Room -- Sharad Joshi: https://amzn.eu/d/9Gavp9s
33. The Wizard and the Prophet -- Charles C Mann: https://amzn.eu/d/huCmv27

Produced by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah
Shot by Vartika Singh:    / @vartikasingh7  
Edited by Nomsita MS Haritashya:   / nomsitaharitashya  
Thanks to Gaurav Chintamani for helping with sound:   / gaurav_chintamani  
Chapter images & additional illustrations by Simahina:   / i_am_simahina