Updated: December 3, 2020 11:39:55 am
Without some support from the state, the smallest of Indian peasants would be even more vulnerable. (Archive)
The three controversial farm bills, which received approval from the president on September 27, essentially change the rules on the sale, storage and price of farm products.
The bills have been touted as a watershed moment for Indian agriculture by the Prime Minister as the government claims the reforms would remove the shackles of the agricultural sector and free farmers from the dominance of middlemen by creating a market.
However, farmers’ unions and groups have concerns about two main issues: first, given that Minimum support price (MSP) is not mentioned in the bills, they fear that they will lose their guaranteed option to sell to APMC’s mandis and that this will lead to business exploitation.
Second, they perceive a process of corporatization of agriculture in the absence of regulation, since agribusiness companies could well dictate both market conditions (including prices) and the terms of production. contract farming since small farmers do not have the same bargaining power.
Christophe Jaffrelot and Hemal Thakker, both from Sciences Po, Paris, ask for: “Why should agriculture be liberalized in the first place when in most countries governments subsidize this sector?”
In the US, the agricultural sector is expected to receive $ 46 billion in federal subsidies this year. This represents about 40 percent of total farm income, and if it weren’t for those subsidies, US farm income was poised to decline in 2020, according to a report by The New York Times.
Similarly, European Union Common Agricultural Policy spending has averaged € 54 billion annually since 2006.
Without some support from the state, the smallest of Indian farmers would be even more vulnerable. According to provisional figures from the X Agricultural Census 2015-2016, in India, “small farmers and marginal farmers” (those with less than two hectares of land) represent 86.2% of all farmers, that is, almost 126 million people. For them, it is inconceivable to take their products to other states or distant places to sell them. They will not easily resist “proposed” deals by agribusiness companies.
“Should they disappear in the name of modernization of agriculture, which means concentration of land and mechanization?” ask the authors.
They write that to make agriculture sustainable, the government should take inspiration from the Andhra Pradesh community-managed agriculture model, which promotes agroecological principles with the use of ecologically sustainable inputs produced locally, focusing on soil health, rather than relying on chemical fertilizers. This model is stronger and more biodiverse in nature and provides a safety net for farmers. 📣 Follow Express explained on Telegram
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