Farmers in various states in India are protesting against three new bills that the government says will open up the strictly controlled agricultural sector to free market forces.
The bills, approved by India’s parliament this week, make it easier for farmers to sell their produce directly to private buyers and enter into a contract with private companies. The government hopes that private sector investments will stimulate growth.
As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agricultural reform policy, the laws will also allow traders to store food. Grabbing food for profit is a crime in India.
The government has left us at the mercy of the big corporations.
The main opposition party in Congress has described the bills as “black law” and “pro-business”. Its top leader, Rahul Gandhi, accused Modi of “turning farmers into slaves of the capitalists …”.
But Modi has defended the play. “For decades, the Indian farmer was subject to various constraints and was harassed by intermediaries. The bills passed by Parliament free farmers from such adversities, “he said in a Twitter post.
Under the Agricultural Products Marketing Committee (APMC) Act passed in 1964, it was mandatory for farmers to sell their products in government-regulated markets, or mandis, where intermediaries helped farmers sell crops to the company. state or private actors.
The government says the APMC mandis monopoly will end but will not be closed, and that the Minimum Livelihood Price (MSP), the price at which the government buys agricultural products, will not be eliminated.
Farmers, especially in the states of Punjab and Haryana, have protested against the government measure [Narinder Nanu/AFP] (AFP)
The new laws give farmers additional options to sell their produce anywhere in the country, in contrast to the previous situation where interstate commerce was not allowed.
State governments, which earn revenue through mandi transactions, may lose tax revenue as trade moves out of state or into the domain of private deals.
The protests have been most intense in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, known as the Grain Bowls of India, where mandi are the main centers of agricultural trade.
Modi, who won the election on the promise of doubling farm incomes, has been under pressure to bring private investment to a severely stagnant agricultural sector.
For decades, farmers were mired in deeper debt due to poor harvests and the inability to secure competitive prices for their products. Unable to cope, many have resorted to taking their own lives.
The agriculture sector contributes nearly 15 percent of India’s economy, valued at $ 2.9 trillion, but employs roughly half of the country’s 1.3 billion people.
Al Jazeera spoke with farmers and experts on the topic that has become a hot topic in the country.
Rashpinder Singh, 27, farmer from Punjab state
The government has left us at the mercy of the big corporations. It is absurd to believe that farmers who have small land holdings will have bargaining power over private agents.
Government officials have said that farmers can sell their produce to whoever they want, whenever they want. How can a small farmer store his produce for months? You will not have access to the storage facilities. As a result, the product is very likely to be sold at an unsustainable rate for the farmer.
The bills further establish that farmers can reach an agreement with private companies. These deals are economically attractive, but due to the large number of attached terms and conditions, it is difficult for a farmer to cope with them. You become a slave to the company. This fight is not just about the economy, but also about our right to grow what we want and our self-love.
Harvinder Singh Lakhowal, 53, member of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, the group leading the agitation against the bills in Punjab
[Photo courtesy: Harvinder Singh Lakhowal]
All guarantees given by the government regarding the MSP have not been provided to farmers in writing, they are all verbal guarantees.
If a farmer gets into a dispute regarding his contract with a private company, it will be very difficult for the farmer to resolve the dispute in his favor. How can a small farmer stand up to powerful corporations like Reliance, for example? Anyway, a farmer is in a difficult position as farming is unsustainable, and then expecting a person to have it to fight big business means that he will eventually be driven to suicide.
Davinder Sharma, Food and Trade Policy Analyst
It is quite obvious that the bills are not going to benefit the farmer and that is why they are protesting.
There are many problems in the APMC mandi system, which require reform. Nobody denies it. But reforming the APMC mandi does not mean that farmers are pushed from one group of intermediaries to another group of intermediaries. It is not a solution for agriculture.
The point is that in a country where 86 percent of farmers have land the size of less than two hectares, the farmer cannot be expected to take his produce to distant places to sell it.
What we need is a guaranteed price for farmers. If markets say they will offer a higher price to farmers, the question is a higher price at what. There must be some point of reference.
[Photo courtesy Rashpinder Singh Grewal]
Agriculture is suffering a depressed price for decades. Farmers have been denied legitimate income for decades. Agriculture has been deliberately kept improvised.
Let’s reform and expand APMC’s mandi network in the country. Provide MSP to farmers and make it legally binding that there will be no trade below MSP. Only then will the vision of the Prime Minister of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas (together with all, development for all) be realized.
Farmers are not stupid. If they get higher prices for their crops, will they protest in the streets amid the coronavirus pandemic?
We follow the American model when incorporating companies into agriculture.
Kavitha Kuruganti, the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture
The implications of these bills are going to be adverse because farmers really need protection of their interests in the form of regulations. The government’s move to deregulate in the hope that private actors will do what the government should do is not going to help farmers.
The general reading is that there are serious deficiencies in the way the bills have been drafted. Clearly, it is intended for agricultural companies and not farmers. While the government says more or less openly that it is intended for investors, it has obviously not done enough to ensure that the interests of farmers are not sacrificed.
Sudha Narayan, Agricultural Economist at the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research
The bills will not affect all farmers equally. It will help some and harm others.
Farmers now have the freedom to sell crops to anyone. Traders can ignore what the state government laws are and can buy directly from farmers and establish their own connections with farmers and make purchases, which is a good thing in principle.
The problem with the bills is that they are putting farmers in the hands of private actors without any guarantees and without any regulation or discipline in terms of pricing. There is a lack of regulatory oversight and a pricing body.
Farmers in the states of Punjab and Haryana worry that these bills are just the beginning of something bigger.
What they fear is that the government will eventually dismantle the state procurement system and the MSP transaction on which they depend.
Additional reporting by Bilal Kuchay and Fateh Veer Singh
