Farm Bill and the protest at a glance
Farmers from Punjab and Haryana have sieged the national capital since 26 November.
They are protecting and against the latest adopted Farm Bills This legislation requires farmers to market goods directly to companies, says the Centrum for Farmers who worry that this could be an excuse to take the MSP safety net from of their feet
Since 26 November 2020, the boundary of Delhi has undergone a big upheaval by farmers, most of them from Punjab and Haryana.
Farmers are protesting against 2 Farm Bills recently passed by Rajya Sabha:
(1) Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, and (2) Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
The two bills have already passed the lower chamber, the Lok Sabha. When they were presented to the Rajya Sabha, there was a ruckus, and eventually, the Bill passed by a voice vote.
1. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:
This bill requires farmers to export their goods outside the controlled markets of the Agricultural Products Market Committee (APMC). The APMCs are government regulated promotion yards or mandis. So, evidently, farmers have more options in who they choose to sell. The rationale of the government, economic expert Gurcharan Das writes in TOI, is that the Agricultural Products Marketing Committee (APMC) is an outdated organisation from an era of scarcity, designed to shield the peasant, but has now become its oppressor, a monopoly cartel setting low prices for farmers' produce, forcing distress sales.
2. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
This Bill lays down guidelines for the creation of a system for contract farming. A farmer and an ordained buyer can enter into an arrangement before development takes place.
According to PRS India, the Standing Committee on Agriculture (2018-19) has observed the need for an overhaul of the APMC regulations, as cartelization has begun to crystallise due to the small number of traders in APMC mandis. The same regulation was then introduced in September 2020.
3. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020:
The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance 2020 enables the intra-state and inter-state trade in agricultural goods outside the physical premises of the APMC markets. Governments of the State are forbidden from levying any market tax, termination or levy outside APMC zones.
Why are the farmers upset?
Farmers of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana are furious at the provisions of these bills, as they believe that these bills could be a forum set up by the government (at the Center) to substitute or scrap the otherwise robust support mechanism prevalent in their states for the purchase of their crops. They fear that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) would guarantee that their safety net has been in place since the Green Movement of the 1960s, possibly snatched away from under the pretext of giving farmers more playground and better platforms.
The government-driven crop production infrastructure in these areas is very strong. Procurement through the Food Corporation of India at the promised MSP to farmers, which is announced before each agricultural season, enables farmers to concentrate on further yields.
Twenty-three agricultural crops have MSPs, but the governments mostly purchase only rice and wheat. Farmers are fearful of the two new bills, as they fear that these agricultural policy mechanisms would ruin both the government procurement process and the MSP. And why do we see most of the Punjab and Haryana protesters? That's because they are the biggest winners of this safety net.