“The
farmer is much more than the one who working in the fields and caring the animals;
they are the one that feeds the nation”.
On
September 27, 2020, the honorable president of India Mr. Ram Nath Kovind gave
his assent to new famer bill. Our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi hailed the
bill by passage of saying “A WATERSHED
MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE.”
India is an agriculture dominated country.
More than 70% of India’s population is directly or indirectly engaged in
agricultural activities. Only due to the hard work of farmers, we are eating peacefully
and they feed entire nation. Now, government has passed new bill with the aim
of welfare of farmers and agriculture sector but farmers of across India have
protested against these bills in roads. They have raised the slogan for protest
against farmer’s bill is ‘KISAN BACHAO MANDI BACHAO’.
Farmer bill 2020 includes 3 farmer reform
bills – The Farmer Produce Trade and Commerce Act 2020, The Farmer Agreement on
Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020 And Essential Commodities
(Amendment) Act, 2020. These bills make big structural changes in agricultural
sector and encourage corporate investment in agriculture sector. According to
new bill, farmer can sell their product openly anywhere and get higher price.
These bills give power to farmer to sell their goods directly to corporate or
exporter. There will be no change in APMCs (agriculture produce market
committee) and MSP (minimum selling price). These both will be continuing and
farmer can sell their crop in Mandi on existing MSP.
The
Farmer Produce Trade and Commerce Bill 2020, farmer can sell their product
anywhere not only to APMCs approved mandis or market place but to any corporate
or exporter (inside the state, outside the state). It gives freedom to farmer
to select a marketplace. It also allows online trading of famer produce goods.
It prohibits state government for imposed market fees on farmers for sale to
corporate, exporter or electronic trade of farmer produce goods.
The
Farmer Agreement on price assurance Bill, 2020 it doesn’t describe any mechanism
for price fixation. Company can make contract with farmers for buying their
products. They set the price for the product, the standards and qualities. Government
says that this will protect and empower farmer to sell to anyone and make a
written contract which protects the farmer in case the buyer tries to cheat
them. They can also sell future produce goods in today.
Essential
commodities Act control the production, supply and the distribution of certain
commodities. It includes items such as food items or drugs, then companies and
supermarkets cannot hoard these items when there is shortage of goods and also
cannot artificially increase the price. The list of essential commodities includes:
Drugs, fertilizers, foodstuff, petroleum, raw jute and seeds. The new amendment
has removed food stuff such as potatoes, cereals, pulses, edible oilseeds and
oils. If there are uncertain circumstances like war or famine and price rise
then these commodities will not be considered under the essential commodities
list. The governement cannot stop a supermarket or retailer from hoarding goods
unless there is 100% rise in price of perishable goods or 50% increase in price
of non-perishable goods.
Meetings between farmers and government
are organised many times to settle the conflict between farmers and government
and to convince farmers about the benefits of the New Farmer Bill, but Farmers
Minister also submit a file for make changes in some aspects of farmers bill
because they put a point that the act was not discussed with exerts or state
government so it is not perfect for the farmers and a committee is formed to
analyze the aspects of the bills passed by the government.
The government motive to introduce these
farmer bills to boost or develop agriculture sector and double the farmer
income in 2022. Government analyze that when farmer’s are free to sell their
products to corporate and exporter, it help in better price and encourage
corporate sector to invest in the agriculture sector. It helps in develop more
advanced technology in agriculture sector. Proper agricultural machinery and
equipment will be arranges by the buyer of farmer product and also provide
technical guidance and advice to farmers. During crop production, the crop will
continue to be owned by the farmer and crop will be insured and the farmer will
also be able to take loans from financial institution.
Farmer’s are protest against this famer bill because they have feared in their mind that large retailer and corporate could dominate agriculture sector with their money power. Farmer fears that virtual disbanding of the mandi system not gives an assured price for their crops. Farmer have doubt that in future APMCs become unavailable like BSNL and MTNL in the upcoming future has neither discussed with states nor discussed with the experts in the field of agriculture. The protest is more intense in Punjab, Haryana or west uttar Pradesh because in these areas there is more organised form of APMCs. Middlemen are become jobless and there is a possibility of middlemen in private sector also because farmer is not in the position to bargain with corporate house. In private sector, there will be no control and exploitation of middleman may multiply. We are talking about ‘ONE NATION ONE MARKET’, ‘FREEDOM OF CHOICE OF MARKET’ that farmer can sell his product anywhere where he gets better price but according to ground reality a farmer do not have a medium and money to transport goods from one place to another because government itself says 86% of farmers are marginalized.
“Investments in agriculture are the strong
weapons against the war of hunger and poverty and they have made like better
for billions of people”
KEYWORDS: Watershed
Moment, Structural Changes, Virtual Disbanding, Exploitation Of Middleman,
marginalized, revolutionary changes
Video Links:
WRITTEN BY:
TARA RANI
Student of Department of Management
Studies
Geeta Engineering College
1 Comments
Super 😇 keep it up di ✌🏻
ReplyDelete