Farmers Protest

1. Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 (FPTC).
2. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement and Price Assurance and Farm services Bill,2020 (FAPAFS).
3. Essential Commodities(Amendment) Bill, 2020 (ECA).

The above three bills have been passed by both houses of Parliament. A lot of politics and protests have been going on streets, roads, and villages for the last few days. Although, we will not get to know the real picture and analysis of these bills due to the biased and government-friendly or opposition-friendly TV media. 

Meanwhile, farmers are not happy and their concerns are mainly focused on the 1st bill (FPTC), but all these bills should be viewed in totality and aim at a single objective to convert the farm sector into the industry through the "One Nation, One Agri" scheme.

REFORMS

The government is claiming it as a huge reform in the agriculture sector and ensuring that the farmers get better returns of their harvest by giving them the freedom to sell their crops anywhere they want around the country. It is also opening the doors for private companies along with APMC(Agriculture Produce and Market Committee) 'mandis' to create competition. It is expected that competition will give proper choices and reasonable value of crops to farmers, it can regulate the prices of essential commodities and reduce wastage due to proper and balanced stocking.

The FPTC bill will demolish the monopolistic power of APMC and licensed middleman who sells the crop in the APMCs, the FAPAFS bill allows contract farming, and the ECA bill will remove the stocking limit of a large number of commodities. The government is telling that the farmers are not getting MSP(Minimum Support Price) due to middlemen. The farmers can eliminate these middlemen and sell directly to institutional players at prices to be agreed upon between them.

Contract Farming will allow farmers to do business with private buyers and other institutions to produce crops for a pre-agreed price. Hoarding has become legal for economic agents to stock food articles freely.

The priority of the government is aiming to double the income of farmers by 2022-23 from the status of income in 2016-17. To achieve this target the government is trying to invite private investment and change the agriculture sector into a market, where the farmers can sit at the front seat.

CONCERNS, OBJECTIONS, and DEMANDS

Farmers

With more than 85% of farmers having less than 2 hectares of land, they are not capable enough to negotiate directly with large-scale buyers, they possess more bargaining power and resources than small-scale farmers. Small-scale farmers may find it difficult to travel and store their crops to sell anywhere in the country. Although, there have been no restrictions for farmers to sell elsewhere earlier too. The government-aided APMCs 'mandis' may get closed when farmers will get a better price from private 'mandis' and the monopoly of private players will start to ruin the demands of farmers. Also, no tax will be on the private market.

Since MSP has never been a legal right, but it has been moral support for farmers from government APMCs to provide a good rate with respect to MSP. There is no provision of MSP for private ones, they might give better prices than the MSP range earlier but there is also a possibility that the farmers will not get what they deserve after 8-10 years of this reform. The role of middlemen can change as well, they will start working for private entities and do the same thing they were doing earlier. The private players may indulge in unlimited hoarding of crops and can lead to an artificial fluctuation and will give low prices to farmers after harvest. 

Farmer's demand is to make MSP a legal right is very important for future aspects. There should be reform in APMCs because middlemen will sustain them forever. The acts are basically more favorable towards companies than farmers because no tax is levied on them.

State Governments

The major concern of state governments is that they will lose the tariffs, cess, or fees from mandis operations because private players will start purchasing directly from farmers. They will also lose their control over APMCs due to these bills and their right may be violated till APMCs will sustain. Due to the scrapping of APMCs 'mandis', many will lose their jobs who work as accountants, laborers, drivers in these 'mandis'.

CONCLUSIONS and QUESTIONS

The Central government is showing a stubborn nature towards the distressed farmers and farmers are not getting confidence from PM's words about APMCs and MSP because they have not included MSP in any of the legislation. So, a lot of questions or criticisms are coming from farmers and related sectors towards the government.

What if the private players will not provide the proper price of harvest after getting the confidence of farmers? A businessman will always think about his profit than farmers.

Will private companies ever sympathize with farmers and give them the price of their crops if it gets damaged due to flood or weather conditions? The farmers will not get any sort of money that year.

Why MSP is not included in the act for private institutions? as they will start a monopoly in which farmers will be bound to follow their paths if APMCs get closed.

Is it not the government's responsibility to talk and convince farmers than talk to private institutions before placing any such kind of bill? Farmers are bigger stakeholders than private ones in such kinds of provisions. No government will ever succeed in any development if the concerned stakeholders are not happy.

It seems like the government is not clear about its intentions because on one side they are liberalizing the Agri market, but on the other side, it is putting a ban on the export of onions. Any development or investment must come from the government's side, not from private investment. Capitalism might overrule the government system and slavery will get a boost. Although, more than 60% of the population directly depends on the agriculture sector. Not everything is all about politics and elections.

" A farmer is a magician, who produces money from the mud "

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