File photo: Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh raise slogans during a protest in Bhopal. (Image: PTI)
The government claims that these ordinances will help farmers get better prices for their crops by legalizing contract farming.
- News18.com
- Last update: September 12, 2020 3:21 PM IST
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Farmer protests that erupted in Punjab and Haryana have already spread to parts of Uttar Pradesh. In the coming days they could also expand to other states. This is because farmers are angered by three ordinances the government is likely to enact and pass by both Houses of Parliament: the Essential Commodities Ordinance (Amendment), the Farmers Agreement (Empowerment and Protection) on Price Guarantee. and Agricultural Services Ordinance, 2020 and The Agricultural Products Trade and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance – in the monsoon session starting Monday.
The government claims that these ordinances will help farmers get better prices for their crops, by legalizing contract farming, for example. A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office in early June this year stated that these ordinances will give farmers “the freedom to produce, maintain, move, distribute and supply, and will lead to taking advantage of economies of scale and attracting the sector. private / foreign direct investment “. in the agricultural sector. It will help drive investment in cold storage and modernization of the food supply chain. “
However, farmers who have been protesting these ordinances for several weeks now claim that the ordinances will ‘corporatize’ the agricultural sector and cripple it even more financially. To protest against this measure, various farmers’ organizations have planned large protests across the country on September 14, the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament. Tractor rallies have already been held in parts of Punjab and Haryana, and farmers planned to march down Parliament Street against this measure, which they have now reduced to a small number given the new outbreak of coronavirus cases.
It was in protest against this measure that the farmers in Pipli of Haryana were agitated blocking the Delhi Ambala highway. The situation became tense when police used truncheons to disperse protesting farmers.
“We have made a national appeal to farmers around the world, in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, to come out on September 14 and express their disapproval of the ordinances in whatever way is appropriate within of the established social distancing norms The government affirms that the farmers are happy because of these ordinances, we fear that until now, no matter how little we obtain through the Minimum Price of Livelihood, we will not even get it if the agricultural sector is corporatized, “he said. VM Singh. , the national coordinator of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC).
He said the contract farming model, for example, that the government is trying to push has already been tested in the sugarcane sector. “A large number of sugarcane growers have tested this business model and are looking at their status right now. They are owed billions of rupees and no one steps in to give them their fair share,” Singh said.
Many agricultural experts have criticized the fine print of the ordinances. Siraj Hussain, ICRIER Visiting Principal Investigator and former Union Secretary of Agriculture, cites the PepsiCo case that sued farmers in Gujarat as an example of how vulnerable farmers who hire large companies become. “There are apprehensions by farmers to enter into contracts, as they are not organized and ill-equipped for any legal battle with companies … In the face of state government intervention, PepsiCo withdrew the cases but the incident left a question mark about the future of contract farming in which resource-poor farmers faced off against a powerful multinational. “
Narasimha Reddy Donthi, an independent public policy reviewer, in a June article this year said: “Despite the government’s claims, none of these ordinances benefit farmers in any way. However, as noted in the The text of the ordinances will help merchants, especially large corporations. Together, these ordinances are intended to usurp state powers and override state laws and market committees. “
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