behindthelaw-blog

[behindthelaw-blog]

ARE THE FARM BILLS LUCRATIVE?

Despite the compelling protests of the farmers against the farm bills passed by the Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three controversial farm bills on 25th September.

So what are these three bills all about? The first one is -The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce Bill, 2020. It gives farmers and traders the freedom to sell and purchase the farmers’ produce through various trading channels to promote the inter-state and intra-state commerce of the farmers. It allows the farmers to sell their harvest outside the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Market without paying any taxes. The second one is - The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. It promotes contract farming. The third one is- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill,2020. It states that the farmers can store as much produce as they want in their warehouse and they can sell their harvest only when they deem it to be suitable enough to bring it to the market(but there are some regulations). The government anticipates that these legislations will give farmers more opportunities to sell their produce freely throughout the nation and the corporatization of agricultural marketing will be beneficial to a great extent.

As every coin has two sides, these bills also have their pros and cons as well. If we talk about the advantages, then; due to the introduction of Contract Farming the farmers will have security, no matter what the market price is, regarding their harvest’s sale (even the insurance of their crop in case of any natural calamity), and the company will have clarity regarding the allocation of the company’s cash as it will know the price of raw material beforehand. Also, there will be a balanced market system, as there are certain regulations imposed through the amendment on the farmers, by which the artificial regulation of prices can be prevented up to a large extent, and thus, neither the farmers nor the middlemen cartels can artificially regulate the prices.

If the bills are so lucrative then why do the farmers protest? And is their protest justified? The answer is YES! Their protests are justified!! So, let’s see why?

Through the protest, the farmers want their demands to be fulfilled, that are as follows-

MSP (Minimum support price) to become a legal mandate and it should be the legal right of the farmers to claim MSP for their produce.

Rollback of ordinances.

National law should be made for MSP to be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.

Protection of APMC Mandi Market from private traders.

If we talk about the after-effects of the Farm Bills, then it will be effective and profitable to farmers in the starting phase of its implementation but, the farmers will suffer huge losses in the long term if certain changes are not done to these bills!

As we know that 85% of farmers in India are small farmers and the land they own is less than 1 hectare and accordingly, their produce is less & if they do not get the bare minimum price for their harvest, then this will lead to the exploitation of the farmers. And, according to an NSSO report, currently, in India, only 6% of farmers can sell their produce at MSP, and the rest 94% are still suffering, even after so many years of independence.

What if the loopholes of these bills are not paid attention to by the government??? If these bills come into force without any regulations by the government, then in the starting phase of the private traders(like Big basket, Grofers, etc..) growth, they will give huge incentives to farmers, and their cash draining motive is to just capitalize the market! Which at this time is not needed in a country like India. Then, slowly and simultaneously, these companies will build their trust among farmers and the consumers which will lead to our dependability on the private traders, and then at this phase, the traders will have a monopoly and they exploit the farmers as well as the consumers. So, at this phase, the government should step in and put certain regulations on the private traders that no matter what, they will have to pay at least the MSP to the farmers for their produce, only then security can be given to the farmers. Contract farming with regulations will make the farmers secured and on the other hand, Contract farming without regulations will result in the exploitation of the farmers. So, the government has to take measures regarding the mandatory MSP otherwise, the same will happen with the farmers and the consumers in the coming years, that happened during the British Raj, i.e., BRUTAL BEHAVIOUR of the middlemen cartels.

In my opinion, the parliament should reconsider the farm bills and should make some regulations so that the bills could give long term return to the farmers as well as to the economy and the condition of the Indian farmers is improved.

Hence, the farm bills will be lucrative only with the introduction of some regulations and the government should pay heed to this matter, then only it will turn to be a ‘One Market, One Nation Policy’.

#farm bills #farmers #government #protest #minimum support price #policy #point of view #indian news #parliament #prime minister narendra modi #law blog #legitimate