What do professors know?

"The government's decision to ban onion exports and impose stock limits may have arrested the steep rise in prices of the essential vegetable, but experts feel it's more of a knee jerk response that hurts farmers rather than resolving the country's onion mess." "India's onion problem is not so much about managing the shortages as it is about managing the surplus," said Danish Shah, a third-generation onion exporter from Maharashtra. "Tomatoes-onions-potatoes (TOP) are the three basic vegetables that face extreme price volatility and the government often finds itself on the edge in fulfilling its dual objectives of ensuring remunerative prices for farmers and affordable prices for consumers," wrote Prof A Gulati. The government wants a cooperative system, as for milk, for TOP products but milk does not pass through any wholesale market, known as agricultural produce market committee (APMC), "involves no commissions and farmers normally get 75 to 80 percent of the consumer's rupee", whereas "TOP are mostly traded in APMC markets, with layers of mandi fees and commissions, and farmers get less than one-third of the consumer's rupee". The government needs to increase storage space, cut GST on processed foods as on milk products and get rid of the APMCs. While India exported $500 million worth of onions in 2018, "The Dutch knocked up $676 million in onion exports in 2018, accounting for 20% of world onion trade," wrote C Rajghatta. The Netherlands maybe a cold country, but it is "raking it in with high-efficiency, hothouse -driven growth". "The Dutch dominate not only the world's cut flower/bouquet trade (not counting allium, they take in $4.5 billion in revenue, accounting for 50% of the world's flower exports), but they are also among the world's top exporter of tomatoes ($1.9 billion), peppers/chillies ($1.08 billion), cucumbers ($565 million), and pineapples ($265 million)", while "Indian farmers have to jump through American hoops to export their low-yield, inefficiently grown mangoes". "The importance towards the rural economy is not due to ignorance," wrote Prof Himanshu. "As it remains important for political mobilisation, governments only tend to remember it just before elections to patronize voters through loan waivers, cash transfers or increased subsidies." No wonder, "As per the National Accounts Statistics 2019, the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) on bread, cereals and pulses was Rs 4.8 lakh crore in 2017-18, down form Rs 5 lakh crore in FY 17." "The spends on milk, cheese and eggs fell 12% to Rs 3.7 lakh crore while that on milk and its products declined 14.6%." Handouts work beautifully when people are starving. Professors know nothing. After all, we Indians know that "In fact, hard work is much more powerful than Harvard."