Thread by @india__abroad

Farmer’s Bill: what, who and how

A lot has been heard about the farm bills that were recently passed by the Rajya Sabha.
Here’s an attempt to understand WHY it is a matter of concern to the farmers, and WHY are they protesting.

Let’s first understand the bills:

(i) The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020
Acc. to this, the farmers can now sell their produce to non-regulated markets. This means, instead of the farmer having to go to a govt controlled Mandi, they can go directly to say a the buyer.

(ii) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
A buyer & a farmer can have a contract in place much before the production even commences.

(iii) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020
deregulates the production, storage, movement and sale of several major food items, including cereals, onions oils etc; unless in case of extraordinary circumstance

Sure, these changes to the bill look positive!
Don’t we all love privatisation? This does give an opportunity to the farmers to be their own king in a way; doesn’t it?

Let’s look at it this way:

You have a business that you’ve been running fore decades, and while you might not have the best of the infrastructure and logistics, you do have a long-time customer (the mandi markets in this case, that assure you a MINIMUM SELLING PRICE).

Now, u're being told that ur current buyers ‘may’ not exist & there is a potential for u to go look for a much bigger corporate client that ‘may or may not’ give u the MSP.

Of course, since ur new corporate client is likely going to be a much more powerful, & a much more cunning client, it is up to u to embrace the big risk of big losses and of course, corporate lawsuits too.

Now, let’s understand why the farmers are protesting:
-One of the key demands of the farmers has been that they fear, they will not receive a MSP, which, acts as a shield to farmers’ produce and also, incentivises the farmers to produce more crops.

The APMC system in the states of Punjab and Haryana is a well oiled system, offering greater benefits to farmers in these two states than most other states.
If MSP is not protected, the crops might not be protected either.

It is fair enough to admit that most farmers sell their produces outside of the APMC network but as of now, this is limited to small time traders.

A reduction in regulation will only give not just an incentive but an invite to big corporates to come into the market and either pay low prices in order to maximise profits or demand a production that the farmers might not be able to cope with.

Consequences:

1. Farmers will not do farming.
2. India has to Import Food and Big people make big money.