Which provisions of agriculture bills are being opposed and why? What is the solution?

The Way in which these agricultural bills of  Central government are being opposed by the  Farmers is a reminder of the movement against corruption led by Anna Hazare. It took me some time to understand that what provisions of the bills are being opposed by them. What are the doubts of the farmers and what is the government arguing for those doubts . It can be clearly said that farmers do not trust the central government. Which is also true upto a large extent because the government is shying away from making his promises into the law.

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The provision of the bill which is being opposed.

Most of the farmers are opposing all the three bills but they are most objected to the 'Agricultural Produce Commerce and Trade Promotion and Facilitation Bill 2020', which has some disputed terms, which the government has not clarified. Such as 'Business Zone', 'Merchant', 'Market Fee', and 'Dispute Resolution'

1. Business Zone

According to section 2m of this bill, any area or place in the definition of business area, place of production, collection and aggregation including form gate, factory premises, warehouse, cold storage or place from where the produce of the farmer can be traded. , All of them are included. However, this definition excludes the existing mandate established under the APMC Act from the definition of business area under the new Bill. That is, the premises and structures operated and managed by the market committee constituted under each state APMC Act, such as major market yard, sub market yard, market sub yard and private farmer consumer market yard managed by license holders are not included. Those opposing the bill say that this provision will limit APMC markets to their physical limits and will give a big boost to corporate buyers.

2.Merchants

According to Section 2N of theBill, a trader can operate in both the APMC market and business sector. While the trader will need a license under the state APMC Act for trading in the mandi, in the current mandi system, the PAN card holder trader can purchase the produce of the farmer in the designated trade area. License is required to trade in APMC mandi. Merchants get license only after verification under the APMC Act. In such a situation, farmers are confident that they will not be deceived. But under the new bill, it will be difficult for farmers to trust a trader.

3. Market Duty

Under Section 6 of this Bill, no market or cess or levy is allowed to be imposed on a farmer or trader under any state APMC Act or other state law within the business area. This provision will reduce the income of the state government and will benefit the private sector. Therefore, the state government is also opposing it. In Punjab alone, in 2019, the Punjab government received Rs. 3600 crores from trade duty as revenue. But with the implementation of the new system, these states will lose such a huge amount.

  

4.Dispute Resolution

According to Section 8 of theBill, reconciliation can be done by filing an application to the SDM for redressal of the dispute between the farmer and the trader. This new bill does not allow farmers to go to court in case of dispute . This leads to fears that the reconciliation proposal system may be misused against farmers.

Fear of Farmers

 Farmers and traders have fear that this new bill leads to end of APMC mandis. In fact, the 'Agricultural Produce Trade and Commerce Promotion and Facilitation Bill 2020' states that farmers can now sell their produce to anyone outside the APMC mandies, which will not include any market fee. Whereas, APMC mandi has different mandi charges and other cess in different states on purchase of agricultural products. Due to this, market traders fear that when there will be  free trade outside the market, no one will want to come to the market and the APMC system will be destroyed. Failure of this model has been seen in the state of Bihar, where the APMC system was scrapped in 2006, causing a huge loss to the agricultural produce business as well as to the farmers this was only beneficial for private companies . As a result, small farmers were forced to become landless laborers and flee. The farmers are also afraid about the bill that after the new law, the government will stop buying crops at MSP. It is also a concern that the 'Agricultural Produce Trade and Commerce Promotion Facility Bill 2020' does not contain any reference to the purchase that outside the market will not be below the MSP. With the implementation of the new laws, the agricultural sector will also go into the hands of the corporate houses, which will harm the farmers. In case of any dispute over contract farming, the farmers will now only go to the SDM but earlier they could go to court. This right has also been taken away from the bill.

Apart from this, most of the farmers in the country are not able to read and understand the terms and conditions of the multinational company. In this case, they are more likely to be exploited. Last year, in Gujarat, PepsiCo company had sued farmers for several crores of rupees for violating contract on potato production for lays chips. Later, the company withdrew due to opposition from farmers' organizations. They suspect that many times the companies promise to buy the goods of the farmers at a fixed price before sowing the crops under contract farming, but later reject the farmers' produce by pretending to be spoiled when the crop is ready. . This law will promote black marketing as farmers will not have control over things due to lack of stock limit and hoarding will increase. Most of the farmers of the country do not have storage system or cold storage, in which case they will have to sell their crops after production to the traders at a lower price, the private company has more resources and capacities, so they will stock them and run the market on their own. In this, the command of fixing the price of the crop will go into his hands and the role of the farmers will end.

Government argument

 

The government has termed these agricultural bills as giving a new freedom to farmers after independence. According to the government, the farmers will be empowered by these laws and will be able to enter into agreements with multinational companies and traders etc. at the general level. According to the new provisions, the farmer will be able to sell his crop in any market at the desired price, this will give the farmers better options to sell their produce. Earlier middlemen used to eat a major part of the farmer's earnings, but now the farmers will get freedom from all these. The new law will eliminate the compulsion of farmers to sell their produce to the licensed traders only. This will promote the idea of ​​'one country is an agricultural market'. By bringing such contract farming under legal purview, the producers will get readymade market for their product. In the contract farming, it is decided long before that what to produce and what the price will be, so the producers will not have to take the risk of market fluctuations. Also, farmers will no longer have to go round for payment and dispute settlement.

What are the remedies for these problems

1. To end the Farmers protest and restore their confidence, the Central Government should reach out to the opposition of the bills, including the farmers, and explain the need for reform.

2. There is a need to bring more clarity in ambiguous provisions. In addition to this, necessary reforms should be made to expand the reach of APMC by promoting private sector in any of the Bills.

3. The government should keep in mind that without strong institutional arrangements, millions of unorganized small farmers in open markets may suffer. For this, strong institutional arrangements need to be made. At the same time, farmers will have to focus on improving agricultural infrastructure.

4. Efforts should be made to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee with reference to the minimum support price on agricultural produce, and the trust of the farmer can be won even by making the MSP a legal right of the farmers. So that the grain providers of the country can become self-reliant and capable.