FARM BILLS EXPLAINED - MOUSMI SHRIVASTAV

WHAT ARE FARM BILLS? WHAT ARE ITS PROS AND CONS? WHY FARMERS ARE PROTESTING AGAINST THIS BILLS?

 • Few days ago , 3 farm bills were passed in the parliament . When these bills were passed in rajya sabha many people were against it but they were in minority and in the opposition party.

• These bills are now passed by both rajya sabha and lok sabha  but the signature of president is still remaining.  

• Farmers are protesting against these bills  all over the india specially in the northern side like Punjab , Haryana and in Bangalore also. 

Name of the bills: 

1. The farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promoting and facilitation ) Bill, 2020 .

2. The farmer (Employment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill,2020.

3. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill,2020.

• Bill 1

1.This says that farmers can sell their farm product in any part of india, there is no intra or inter state barriers.

2. Previously, the farmers sell their farm products to the APMCs( Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees). There are total 7000 APMCs  (called Krishi mandis in hindi) which was established by the government in 1950s. In this the farmers try to sell their products on the best prices. But they do not sell  these products directly to the government they actually sell it to the middlemen . Middle man is a person between the shopkeeper and the farmer. They are licensed middle man , government provide them shops , storage and many more facilities. There are many labours , accountants etc working in this APMCs.

• So what are the changes

POSITIVE

1. Now farmers have option to bypass the middlemen and can sell their farm products directly to the company . 

NEGATIVE

1. So, onpaper this scheme is very great but in reality the buyers are more powerful then the sellers so they can fix any price which is in their favor and this can affect the farmers badly because 85% farmers are small famers ( have less than 2 hectares of land).

2. Another thing is that now private companies will not pay the tax which they have to pay to the APMCs. So this is clear that these bills are just supporting private companies. 

• Bill 2

POSITIVE 

1. This bill allows the farmer to sign a contract with the company which is related to the price of the farm product.  Means, at the early stage of agriculture (i.e. swoing seeds) farmers make a deal with the company that when the crop is ready they will be paid the same money which is mentioned in the contract.  The advantage is if after the harvesting of crop if the price falls down, then also farmer will get the same price which was fixed earlier!

 SO WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

The companies which sell their products directly to the customer like Jio mart will definitely give some discounts and deals to the farmer but after few years , these companies will care more about their profits and stop giving fair prices to the farmers. As the APMCs will be closed (according to the farmers) the farmers will have no option left and they have to sell their products on the prices which the company demands. And this will be a huge problem for them and suicide will be the last option.

• For example when the Amazon entered the market, that time there was no delivery charge but after some time they fixed that delivery charge will be there on the product of less than 500 rupees.  After that they gave an offer that customers with Amazon prime will get free delivery but again the conditions became same as before. 

•Bill 3

1. This bill is about hoarding.  In india many middlemen and other people do hoarding means, they buy the products in large amount when the prices are low and store them. And when the prices increases they sell these products on high price and force farmers to give them the products on low prices because they already have a huge amount of these  products.  So, if farmers rejected their offer; then also the hoarders won't have to face any loss .  So farmers are left with no option and they have to sell their products on low price. 

2.  Hoarding was illegal but this bill allowes the unlimited stocking and makes this hording legal which is very dangerous to the farmers. 

• WHAT ARE THE DEMANDS AND COMPLAINS OF THE FARMERS?

1. According to the farmers these bills are more favorable to the private companies not to the farmers.

2. They want the government to strengthen MSP (Minimum Support Price). MSP should be the legal right of the farmers which is not there in the bills. Actually MSP do exist in the market but only 6% of farmers get advantage of this MSP. 

3. Farmers wants to reforms the APMCs. They don't want to remove it completely. 

4. According to the farmers the middlemen will not go away. And this will be the failer of the bill because these middlemen if removed by the government then they will work for the private companies . And this will give no advantage to the farmers.

5. Farmers want that the agriculture department should be in the hand of the government not in the private sector. Otherwise if the price fluctuation occurs government won't be able to save the farmers.

6. For example JIO and BSNL. BSNL was a government company but it gets dominated by other networks like jio, airtel etc. When jio entered into the market it provided free sim cards and very affordable internet. But as Jio grew it increased its prices and now BSNL is almost finished . There are very few powerful network companies left in the market and if they will decide to increase the prices the customers have no option left and they have to pay the price for internet access. 

7. As government are saying that they will not remove APMCs. But according to the farmers APMCs will face the same problem as BSNL is facing.  

•Implementation 

SCENARIO A: If these bills will pass farmers may get best prices from the companies according to the paper work.

SCENARIO B: If these bills will pass the agricultural sector will be removed from the hands of government.  There will be no MSP and farmers will be under control of the companies and this is the biggest fear of the farmers. 

• If the bills are implemented properly as they are on paper work. It would definitely help the farmers. Although if they are not implemented properly ( as happens in most of cases) it would definitely harm the farmers. 

• We all know that without farmers the mankind will not progress. Farmers don't just work till the sun goes down , they work till the job gets done. Today if you are in your air conditioned room and watching news and reading this blog with some food in your plate then do think about those farmers who are protesting for their living.  And if you ate today thanks a farm and do give a thought on their struggles because struggles of farmers are much more greater than Ananaya Pandey.

- MOUSMI SHRIVASTAV