India's Minimum Support Price regime was conceived as insurance against price collapse for farmers to ensure a sustained channel of stable pricing and income. Six decades later, it has changed from insurance into the primary revenue channel itself, and it tells farmers not just what price they'll get, but effectively what is the best choice of crop to grow because the market guarantees you a price you know and can predict without fail. Illustration by The Geostrata And what i

"Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough food to eat." — Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines (1981) Food is no longer viewed merely as an agricultural commodity and has evolved far beyond its conventional role. It increasingly represents political legitimacy, economic resilience, and national security in an era marked by growing geopolitical rivalries, climate-induced production shocks,

Crop diversification, in simple terms, implies the widening of the crop basket through a strategic plantation of multiple varieties of...