22/12/2020
Farmer bills: For big farmers there is a hope but the small timers will not be able to survive!
UT Jammu and Kashmir farmers are going to feel the heat! Our farmers are not prepared for this. They have yet to come to terms with doing business with corporate sector! It is gloss ridden, immediate effect is gratifying but in the long run, nothing can be said!
Thakur Hoshiar Singh
Former president Lok Sabha Youth
Jammu-Poonch Constituency while speaking to the media
Jammu:
The farm bills have been passed by the Government. Good or bad will be found out later but the initial reaction by the various leaders is heavily tilted in the opposite way as to what the Government thinks. Three farm bills, which have been passed by the Indian parliament, are expected to create a major impact on Indian agriculture and agro-trade. Agriculture sector that employs a large part of India's population. Whenthe farm bills were passed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the passage of the bills a 'watershed' moment. But history is a testimony to the fact that such block busters can be counterproductive and that too during the times when the pandemic has to be tackled on a war footing and on the borders the neighbors are behaving in an inappropriate way. Though Prime Minister said that it was a great moment for the producers of the products that feed us yet in the Nation the farmers blocked roads and railway tracks in a protest against the new legislation that they say could pave the way for the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers. And this is going to happen since it has happened in the past world over.
The three farm bills passed by the parliament are:
* Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill
* Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill ( Also referred to as APMC Bypass Bill)
* Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill.
Provisions of these bills may result in elimination of the monopoly of government-run APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committees). As per older laws and provisions, farmers have to sell their produce at APMCs. It was mandatory that the first sale of agri-produce took place in the market yard of the 'mandis'. APMCs were formed by the Government of India to shield farmers from big retailers and to ensure that retail prices did not get too high. As per the new bills, farmers will now be free to sell their produce even to private buyers, including big companies. Farm bills passed in the Indian parliament give farmers the freedom to sell their crop anywhere in India. In APMCs, licensed middlemen brokered the deal between farmers and the government. Over the years, these middlemen monopolized their authority in APMCs and cartelization occurred. Farmers were often at the mercy of these middlemen. The newly passed farm bills are likely to break the monopoly of these middlemen as it gives farmers the freedom to carry out the first sale outside APMCs.
What could happen:
*Farmers will have a choice to sell their produce to anyone without APMC getting in the way
*Monopoly of APMC will be destroyed.
*The changes proposed will take out the middlemen who essentially run APMC.
* Payment will be made to farmers in three days
* Farmers will have more options when it comes to selling their agricultural produce.
What is the fear?
*Farmers will be at the mercy of big corporations during dealings. If at all MSP is abolished, farmers will lose the bargaining chip and a last-ditch sale option they've always had.
*Critics of the farm bills say there is not much government regulatory oversight in the new provisions.
*There are still doubts over the way the government can comprehensively intervene in case farmers get cheated from private buyers.
*Examples across the globe show that when farmers were exposed to market forces, their incomes decreased rather than increased.
The Congress party has called the bills ‘black law’ and ‘pro-corporate’. Its top leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister of ‘making farmers ‘slaves’ of the capitalists’.
Words such as ‘corporatization’, ‘cartelization’ and ‘East India Company’ are in air. Voices such as the current bill will destroy marginal and small farmers, bill favours ‘Monsanto, Walmart and Reliance, etc., FDI culture will finish Indian agriculture are already in air are making rounds.
I will give you an example here as to what happened in USA after World War-II. The US government, to galvanize rural incomes, then created financial and credit institutions offering easy loans to farmers for machinery and purchase of more land. A new system of contracting was also undertaken by the broiler industry, backed by feed dealers, etc. A push for diversification into livestock, high value crops, etc. was also backed US government loans. Sound similar to the Rs 8.5 lakh crore agri-stimulus package COVID-19 stimulus given by the Modi government? Riding on easy loans, stressed US farmers were quick to buy more land, farm equipment and modernize. In fact, for some years, the yearly land inflation price overtook bank investments. Overall, business was good, but this ascent was artificially sustained through lax fiscal manipulation. Speculation was high and credit was being used to refinance other mortgages. This caused a financial crash! But it seems that the government is simply not learning from history. Why the hurry in rushing the bills?
Coming to the UT Jammu and Kashmir. The agricultural sector here is not the developed as to what is there in states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These are strong states with great and strong infrastructure. Our UT has to still come to terms with the modernization aspects. Big time farming is not existent here and how can it be when agricultural lands are being sold dime a dozen for making commercial complexes. Take for example RS. Pura where once, Basmati rice was a mega commercial crop but now it’s no more. We in the UT are eating rice procured from the outside states. We are not a self sustained state or even sn agricultural state. Yes there are marginal farmers who produce and sell their products here. We lack the requisite infrastructure as it is in other states. If the strong agricultural states farmers are revolting then it means that there is something terribly wrong. The bills may have been drafted with all the good intentions but the ground realities have not been considered. Everything has been painted with the same brush. Though everything may look pleasant at the first look but our farmers in the UT will take time to see what actually the reality is. For a few years this sudden explosion could have been avoided. If the agricultural economy is to be boosted this for sure is not the way! We are still fighting the pandemic, prices are sky rocketing, decent living too has been tightened up and amidst this come these bills. All that can be said that it is a wrong decision may be right, seeing it from the ruling party’s point of view but seeing from the farmers of UT point of view, this could have come later and not now when uncertainty has been sprawled over by the contagion Is considered!
*******
