Economist GMAT Reading Comprehension Challenge Article #10
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Article: Why are Indian farmers angry?
Link: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2019/01/21/why-are-indian-farmers-angry
Article Paragraph Summaries
Farmers across India joined…Why are they angry?
- Indian farmers were on strike protesting “rural distress issues”.
- Farmers have been on strike many times before.
- Every year about 12000 farmers commit suicide because of debt obligations.
The last few years have been grim…added to the hardship.
- Weather, currency issues, gas prices, and higher taxes have put pressure on farmers.
The farmers are demanding…charge exploitative interest rates.
- Farmers want an increase in the minimum support price, improvement in that system (make it easier for farmers to sell unsold crops to the government), and unconditional loan forgiveness.
- The current crop support system is slow and causes loss of earnings.
- Because of the problem farmers sell to private buyers for less money.
- Current system of debt relief not working well.
- It also tends not to help small farmers as they often borrow from local money lenders at exploitative rates instead of from banks (banks/financial institutions don’t like loaning to small farmers).
There are no easy answers…the threat looks ominous.
- In order to improve the water crisis needs to be addressed.
- “Boreholes” up from tens of thousands to 20 million deplete groundwater.
- “Long Term Irrigation Fund” has been ineffective. Smaller steps would have been better.
- Farmers are fed up with fancy projects and false promises and have threatened not to vote for current government (Modi).
Primary Purpose:
To explain why farmers in India are angry.
Main Idea:
Farmers in India are angry because the Government has failed to address their issues mainly related to debt relief and crop support programs.