Various farmer groups across the country mainly in the state of Punjab & Haryana are protesting against the passing of the three Farm bills in the monsoon session of parliament. These farmers called for a nationwide shutdown against three farm bills, which were passed by the parliament. Over 250 organizations of Farmers and Farmworkers come under the common roof of All India Kisan Sang harsh coordination committee (AIKSCC). They together gave the call for the Bharat Bandh.   The parties in opposition, including Congress gave their support for the protests. It has been observed by some quarters that the 2019 manifesto of Congress had similar reforms as the recent farm bills. Congress manifesto for 2019 lok sabha election had proposed abolition of APMC act and making trading and sale of agriculture produce free from any restriction. The farmer produce trade and commerce (promotion and facilitation) Act, 2020 would allow trading, sale and purchase of food grains outside the APMCs. As of now agricultural produce trade can be conducted primarily in the APMC areas.

The three farm bills introduced are described here: 

Bill on Agro-Market: Farmer’s produce trade and commerce (promotion and facilitation) bill of 2020 intends to provide barrier free inter-state and intras-tate trade of farmer produce. It  also intends to facilitate a framework for electronic trading.

Bill on Contract farming: The farmer (empowerment and protection) Agreement of price assurance and farm service Bill, 2020 is intended to enable farmer to access modern technique of market and get better input. It also intends to reduce cost of marketing and boost the farmer income.

Bill intended to amend the Essential commodities Act: The essential commodities   (Amendment) Bill, 2020 intends to remove commodities cereals, pulse, oil-seed, onion from the list of essential commodities.

All of the opposition parties including some parties in alliance with the ruling party are in opposition to the Farm bills 2020. Many organizations and parties rightly blame that the process to pass the bills was deliberately done in a session with no question hour, without proper discussion and at a time of COVID when there are not enough MPs to put forth queries. This adds to the mistrust among various stakeholders including state governments who are already dealing with fund crunch due to fiscal mismanagement by the center. The lack of proper consultation on the part of center has also certainly added to the element of mistrust between the government and farmers.

The issues raised by the farmers’ organization are right. If the farmers, especially the poor ones get into dispute regarding her/his produce with a private company, it will be very difficult for the farmer to have the dispute settled in her/his favors. State governments get a part of their revenues and control over the farmer welfare processes through transactions at mandi, ensuring that the farmers get their dues. They stand to lose out substantial amount of tax revenues and that will benefit exclusively the rich farmers and large private companies like Reliance which act like cronies for the regime as trade moves out of state control. The leaders of opposition parties including INC rightly called the bills as black laws and they accused the PM of making farmers destitute slaves of the capitalists destined to die of hunger and poverty.

Some observe that they are acts to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers’ produce and also provide good price for the farmer. But what this observation misses is that the MSP would be effectively wiped out by the bills forcing the farmers to sell their produce at the least selling price in a market being controlled by the cronies of the party ruling at the centre. The observation of the optimists also misses out on the proposition in the bills which states that the agreements between the farmers and corporations can be terminated anytime which can give rise to black market of foodgrains. The bills also mention that the essential commodities act will functionally cease to work which will effectively promote hoarding of food-grains. Optimists believe that the bills on Agri-market will allow the farmers to sell their produce outside APMC mandis where they can get better price, but this is a far-fetched idea as such benefits are generally taken away by the rich farmers.

While India is entering the world with the vision of Self-reliance in post-COVID time, we need to make our farmers self reliant in their farming occupation. But firstly one needs to understand the incongruities in the bills with the requirements of Indian Agri-market. Economies of scale for the sale of the farm produce can be hoped for, but it cannot be possible for every section of farmers. The requirements under which the given provisions in the bills would be successful would be the presence of super-rich farmers with limitless lands and deep pockets, which is not the case in India. In India, the majority of farmers are in the marginal and small categories with the land of area of less than 2 hectares. For example in Maharashtra, 78% of farmers are in the marginal and small categories that will not be able to adapt to the provisions of the bills. The GOI would do a sensible job in listening to the concerns being presented by the Farmers’ organizations as the acts would serve only the super-rich corporations and the rich farmers.

The author is a student member of the Amity Centre of Happiness.