In this whole debate of focussing on retailer, middlemen and farmers, landless labourers have been forgotten. They are the most vulnerable to rise any rise in food prices. It is good that farmers get higher prices. But it will need to matched with increase in daily wages for this unskilled labourers.

Originally posted by jamesvaikom Originally posted by subu76 I'm not sure how it's a given that modern retail will automatically mean farmers will earn more. My understanding is that in the modern retail system we'll have fewer middlemen. Shouldn't this automatically mean that middlemen will have better bargaining power and hence will squeeze suppliers more? Offcourse, we'll have reduced wastage but not sure if that necessarily translates to better monetization for farmers Due to scarcity of food items there are many restrictions on using agricultural land for other purposes. But if we reduce wastage then Govt. can reduce those restrictions. Organized retailers can unlock value of crops by making value added products. If product made from a crop becomes success then value of that crop will increase. Also Organized retailers will pay more tax.

Hey, I'm not sure (with my limited knowledge) that success of the product implies better payout to farmers. Perhaps the retailers will keep the extra margin.

Originally posted by subu76 Originally posted by jamesvaikom Originally posted by subu76 I'm not sure how it's a given that modern retail will automatically mean farmers will earn more. My understanding is that in the modern retail system we'll have fewer middlemen. Shouldn't this automatically mean that middlemen will have better bargaining power and hence will squeeze suppliers more? Offcourse, we'll have reduced wastage but not sure if that necessarily translates to better monetization for farmers Due to scarcity of food items there are many restrictions on using agricultural land for other purposes. But if we reduce wastage then Govt. can reduce those restrictions. Organized retailers can unlock value of crops by making value added products. If product made from a crop becomes success then value of that crop will increase. Also Organized retailers will pay more tax. [DIV][/DIV][DIV][/DIV]Hey, I'm not sure (with my limited knowledge) that success of the product implies better payout to farmers. Perhaps the retailers will keep the extra margin.[DIV] [/DIV][DIV]Given the fragmented nature of Indian agricultural land won't farmers struggle to negotiate with bigger retailers[/DIV]

According to me many value added products can be made from fruits like Jackfruit. If demand becomes huge then they can export the product to many countries. If demand of product increase then automatically demand for Jackfruit will also increase. Anyway organized retailer selling value added product is better for farmers than small retailers selling the fruit until they becomes rotten. Also now a days if farmers get good harvest due to good weather then they will definitely make loss as there won't be any takers for the crops due to less demand. But if there are more organised retailers then even if they pay less rate they will buy all the crops and preserve them in storage. So even if farmers get less rate they earn more as they can sell more.