Farm laws

In the month of September, the central government passed 3 new farm laws which were brought in as ordinances in the month of July invoking article 123[1] of the constitution of India. Ever since these laws were passed there has been a lot of controversies, in fact even when they were being passed, the visuals of MP, Derik O Brien tearing the rule book went viral, post which a few of the opposition members who indulged in non-sensical activities were suspended [2]. In this blog what I will be trying to do is try to summarize what the three new laws are about and a brief look into the protests.

THE 1ST LAW [3]


The 1st of the 3 laws that was passed is the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act,2020. This act mainly talks about providing farmers with the freedom of choice to chose where the farmer wants to sell his/her produce, before this the farmer was supposed to sell his/her produce only in the state-run APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committee)[4]. This act also promotes barrier-free trade within the state and between states, for example, a farmer from Tumkur district wants to sell his produce in the Udupi APMC he will be free do to so or even he wants to sell it somewhere other than the APMC somewhere outside Karnataka, he can. This act also says the farmers will not be charged any cess for the transport or sale of their produce. There was a lot of clutter around this law sighting APMCs will be shut down and MSP (Minimum Support Price) will stop but the government issued clarifications regarding the same.


THE 2AD LAW [5]


The second law that was passed was the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. This act talks mainly about contract farming, where price assurance will be given to farmers even before sowing of crops, in case of higher market price the farmers will be entitled to a price above the minimum price mentioned in the contract. It also transfers the risk of market unpredictability from the farmers to the company, example a farmer cultivates tomato for kissan, and due to high produce in the region the price of tomato falls, the farmer will still be entitled to the price mentioned in the contract. In my opinion, this is act will enable farmers to get a higher income as they can save the money that they will spend on marketing and transport and due to larger company coming in, it will improve the overall infrastructure of their farms.


THE 3RD LAW [6]


The 3rd law is an amendment to the Essential Commodities Act,1955. This amendment removes commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onions and few other things from the list of essential commodities removing the restriction on the quantity in which they can be purchased. This law gives the freedom to hold, move, distribute and supply which will lead to economy of scale. This will help in the modernization of cold storages and attract FDIs. Around 30 per cent of horticulture produce in India is being wasted solely due to lack of cold storage facility[7]. To protect the interest of consumers the act also says during extraordinary situations like war, famine, extraordinary situation of rise or fall of price, the government can regulate these commodities.

This was a brief look into the 3 new laws, but these are not things that are entirely new, similar provisions were there in the APLM Act,2017[8] and model APMC act of 2003[9]. These new laws are based on the report of the standing committee of agriculture of 2018-2019.

Protests
Since the end of November 2020, farmer unions of mainly Punjab lead by the opposition parties and left-leaning parties have been protesting at the borders of Delhi for repealing these 3 laws, initially, their demand was only guaranteed MSP as there was a lot of clutter around it, once that was given new demands arose. In fact, there was a time where the protestors were seen carrying placards to free the "activists" such as Ummar Khalid, Vara Vara Rao and Sharjeel Imam[10]. Congress which has been vocal against there 3 laws had promised the very same in their 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto[11]. The government has held multiple rounds of talks with the protestors and guaranteed a few things as well, hopefully, they break the deadlock and the situation comes back to normal.

Conclusion


In 2006, Swaminathan committee [12] for MSP recommended the C2+50% idea, what C2 means is the total money invested for the particular crop + the amount money the farmer can earn without doing farming (Example: MGNREGA, daily wage work) + interest on the capital + 50% of the previous three parameters. ONLY ONE commodity has been able to fulfil this criterion and that is bajra [13]. The Shanta Kumar Committee report [14] of 2015 found only 27-35 per cent of the produce procured by the government was procured at MSP, another stat is only 14 per cent of paddy and wheat farmers were able to sell their produce to the government. The report also found 68 per cent of paddy and 60 per cent of wheat farmers did not even know what MSP was. This clearly shows the poor implementation of things, in India, it has always been a practice by politicians to increase MSP and waive off loans during times of elections irrespective of party. NRCB data shows 28 farmers suicide every day[15]. All these show the practical implementation of policies are not that good and farmers lack awareness, hence I really hope the government works more on the practical implementation of these 3 new laws, which are necessary and works on educating farmers.
LINKS 

[1]- https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1090693/
[2]-https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tmc-mp-derek-o-brien-tries-rip-rule-book-apart-rajya-sabha-passes-farm-bills-1723676-2020-09-20
[3]-https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15513/1/A2020_21.pdf 
[4]- http://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/apmc.pdf
[5]-https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15511/1/A2020_20.pdf
[6]-https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1579/1/A1955_10.pdf
[7]-https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282442592_Effect_of_Inadequate_Processing_and_Cold_Storage_Unit_on_the_Horticultural_Crops_of_India#:~:text=The%20severity%20of%20the%20lack,due%20to%20spoilage%20after%20harvesting.

[8]-http://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/APLM_ACT_2017_1.pdf    
[9]-https://www.gktoday.in/gk/apmc-act-2003/
[10]-https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/farmers-protest-at-tikri-border-group-demands-release-of-umar-khalid-varavara-rao-others/693269
[11]-https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/congress-2019-manifesto-farm-bills-mandi-system-ravi-shankar-prasad-farm-laws-protest-669846 
[12]-https://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1242360972~~final%20summary_pdf.pdf
[13]-https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/new-msp-govt-fails-to-meet-swaminathan-standards-yet-again-61031 
[14]-https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/every-day-28-people-dependent-on-farming-die-by-suicide-in-india-73194