Production glut behind farm distress?

NEW DELHI, April 19 -- In an article published in The Indian Express on 18 April, Harish Damodaran has argued that "production glut, not dearth of cold storage and processing infrastructure, is the real cause of farm distress (in India) today". The argument, if true, has serious ramifications for Indian agriculture. This is because it suggests that the only way to deal with farm distress is to reduce agricultural production in the country.

This is an interesting argument, but does it have a macroeconomic justification? The article cites problems of potato and sugar cane farmers in some districts of Uttar Pradesh, but such anecdotal evidence may not warrant the radical inference. Indeed, such an argument focuses almost entirely on supply si...