The farmer’s woes have created headlines once again. Stalemate more than the 3 hotly debated farm legislations and their interpretations and implications are sowing new issues more than the way ahead. Fortunately, it is a comparatively lean period for the otherwise busy farmers of India. Sowing for the Rabi crop is practically completed and the harvest season is some months away. All of it permitting them time to dabble into debates on reforming the Indian agriculture sector. In concentrate are the 3 pieces of legislation: Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020, Farmer (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (amendment) Act, 2020.
Response to what they are meant to realize and the doable issues depends on who 1 is speaking to. The corporate sector has largely welcomed them with some even seeing in these a 1991 moment for agriculture in India that will open up the sector and give higher decision to farmers, considerably like what the financial reforms of 1991 did to Indian sector and trade.
All also know extremely clearly that in spite of the new provisions and on the other hand pathbreaking they may look from the viewpoint of the corporate sector, life is apparently not going to modify overnight, in particular for farmers with little holdings, who kind the bulk of Indian agriculture.
Leaving the politics and the lobby groups aside, TheSpuzz Online spoke to specialists on what the legislations propose to realize and the emerging issues and the doable way out.
Take the Essential Commodities (amendment) Act, 2020. The official line right here is to get rid of fears amongst the private investors of any excessive interference in their small business operations. It is meant to allow higher freedom to generate, hold, move, distribute and provide and hopefully with it hold out hopes for attracting a lot more investors into the agriculture sector and the connected infrastructure such as cold storage and provide chain improvements.
Experts have normally stated that the Essential Commodities amendment has been a lengthy pending require and an overdue reform. In truth, S Sivakumar, who leads agribusiness and IT at the FMCG giant ITC, after named the amendment as a measure that “removes the Damocles’ sword hanging on larger players of the Act being rather loosely invoked.”
The concentrate now consequently, a lot of see, now lies in addressing the concern about implementation in a manner that the execution outcomes in the preferred outcome that guarantees customer interests are also safeguarded when removing any element of arbitrariness for the corporate sector.
The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act is meant to let farmers to bypass the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) regulated markets. This is meant to open doors for them to straight engage with the formal sector, which some have been currently carrying out but generating it doable for them to enter into lengthy-term arrangements and present higher decision. While, this appears very good on paper, considerably like the 1991 moment analogy and appears to bring in a lot more selections for the producer, the hitch lies in the nature of Indian agriculture and the fragmented holding by farmers – right after all, more than 85 per cent of Indian farmers have land holdings significantly less than 2 to 3 acres.
Professor Ranjan Kumar Ghosh, Centre for Management in Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) says, the pathbreaking nature of some of the provisions of the Act notwithstanding, the query for the sector is genuinely about techniques to allow the little farmers with marginal holdings to be in a position to successfully engage in trade with the formal sector and nevertheless be a net gainer.
The Agreement on Price Assurance bill is meant to strengthen the farmers’ bargaining energy simply because its most important objective is becoming observed as laying out a national framework on farming agreements. With model terms for an agreement with a purchaser of farm generate, the farmer could stand to have a far better bargaining energy. Here once again, Professor Ghosh feels, the issues could be about the little and marginal farmers. In his view, 1 way to address the troubles could be about making situations to make a lot more Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), which the government is also intending to do with its 10,000 FPOs creation plans. That alone, he feels, could emerge as a forceful voice for the farming neighborhood.
Professor Ghosh also reminds that 1 of the added issues amongst farmers appears about the situation of Minimum Support Price (MSP). “Going by what I can gather, that is not being removed. So, the safety net for the farmers is not being taken away but only it appears as a move to encourage the farmers to not be depended on MSP. Because the irrigation productively could get adversely impacted if farming is done based on MSP alone rather than be guided by the nature of soil, geography and the consumer demand.”
Focus, he feels, now will have to be in higher investments into creation of the provide chains and in the farm gate infrastructure and in bringing about the enablers to strengthen the bargaining energy of the little farmers when also making certain higher transparency and effective procurement by the corporate sector.
Many specialists are also keen to see how the Agri & Allied infrastructure and the Micro Food Enterprises (MFE) funds finish up placing dollars into the hands of farmers. Afterall, the aim is to assist develop postharvest infrastructure and allow greater worth capture by the farmers. This is apart from measures like the PM Kisan scheme for direct advantage transfer to farmers.
Some have argued that the farmer agitation has a lot more of a regional and pick crops and pick states angle to it as well. For instance, Punjab and Haryana have observed a a lot more successfully operating minimum assistance costs and the public distribution program and consequently a demand to continue with the practice.