Agriculture Reform Bill 2020(Read Full Story Behind Farmers Protest in India)



 Why some state are protesting against it?

                      Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against three ordinances of agricultural marketing promulgated by the parliament. The reason behind this is that they see a threat to wheat and rise procurement on which they are much more dependent than farmers from other states.

                The farmers have been protesting against the three bills as they fear getting prices for their crop below minimum selling price and eradication of the monopoly of the APMC market yards formed under the APMC act.

                This are mainly two reason against the protest. To understand the whole structure of  Agricultural reform we have to remind the history of it. Lets see..,

History

                       After the independence farmers sell their agricultural produces direct to the consumers. But due to the poverty most of the farmers lived in debt and take a loan from money landers at high interest. Due to this money landers used to buy their agricultural produces at very low prices and farmers not able to return their money.  To cultivate next crop again they need to take loan again and this cycle get continued.

                       To solve this problem Government of India make APMC act(Agriculture Produces Market Committee). According to this act farmers are not allow to sell their produces to anyone. The main purpose of APMC are,

1. Ensure that farmers are not exploited by intermediaries (money landers) who compel farmers to sell their produces at the farm gate for an extremely low price.

2.All food produces should first be brought to a market yard and then sold through auction.

APMC Module

                          Agriculture produce market committee is a system operating under the state government since agricultural marketing is a state subject that has yards/mandis in the market area that regulate the notified agricultural produce.

                         APMC operates on two principles, Ensure that farmers are not exploited by intermediaries(money lenders) who compel farmers to sell their produce at the farm gate for an extremely low price. All food produce should first be brought to a market yard and then sold through auction.

                         The mandi is basically a market place where farmers sell their produce to the buyers through AUCTION, It is operated as per the regulation of APMC. The auction is facilitated by the commission agents, middlemen. at the mandi, who hold license and are allotted shop in the market. Lets see the stages of farmer produces from farmer to consumer,

 Farmers>APMC>Commission Agent>Traders(TransactionAgent)>Consumers

                         This process are not transparent. Transaction agent take at least 3% of market fees on total market produce. If consumer get farmers produce at RS 50-70, out of that farmers only get near about RS 7 and other money get divided into middlemen like Commission agent, Traders etc. So this is current system of APMC and In this total system only trader get max profit , neither farmers get nor consumers.

                          So what is the point here, In 1973 we brought APMC to stop the exploitation of farmers and now its the reason of farmers exploitation, It get more counter productive. If we want to strengthen our agricultural system we need a reform in APMC.  Lets see agriculture reform bill in detail...,

The three Farm act: Key Highlight

1. Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020
                         The act allows farmers to engage in trade of their agricultural produce outside the physical markets notified under various state Agricultural Produce Marketing committee laws (APMC act). Also known as the 'APMC Bypass Bill', it will override all the state level APMC Act.

2. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm services Act, 2020
                         The acts seeks to provide farmers with a framework to engage in contract farming, where farmers can enter into a direct agreement with a buyer (befor sowing season) to sell the produce to them at pre-determined prices.

3. Essential commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020
                       An amendment to the essential commodities act 1955, this act seek to restrict the powers of the government with respect to production, supply, and distribution of certain key commodities.

Conclusion
                       The simplest solution against the protest of the farmer with respect to the farm bill can be including statutory backing to the minimum selling prices and procurement in the new bill to eradicate the fear of the farmers. Giving farmers the choice to sell without the help of middlemen will be of great use only if there are roads that link villages to markets, climate-controlled facilities, the electricity supply is made reliable and available to power those facilities, and food processing companies who compete to bye their produce.
                       So this is all about Agricultural Reform Bill., what is your view on Agricultural Reform Bill. Do let me know in comment section.
                      Thank You.










Comments