On the face of it, the proposal presented in the article titled “Payment for Ecosystem Services: Guaranteed Farm Income and Sustainable Agriculture” (EPW, 29 April 2017) by P Indira Devi, Lalit Kumar, D Suresh Kumar, Manjula M, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, P Raghu, Devinder Sharma, R Sridhar and L Venkatachalam seems like a wonderful idea for Indian farmers and a win–win situation for government agencies, who “wish” to raise farmers’ income. It attempts to give an economic value to the ecosystem services that farmers generate by cultivating crops.

However, the proposal needs closer scrutiny to understand its nuances. Increasing farm income is definitely the need of the hour, as agrarian communities are under immense distress. What are the mechanisms and alternatives available to achieve this objective and how does the payment for ecosystem services (PES) fit as a “solution”?