Let us examine the content of the Farm Bill and what is the justification for or against it.
by N.S.Venkataraman
From historical times, India has recognized the farming community as the backbone of economy.
Ever since India attained independence, every government headed by the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been considerate to the farming community, recognizing their contribution.
All regions in India have been celebrating atleast one day in a year dedicated to the cause of agriculture, farming community and their tools. under various nomenclature that have been primarily to express the gratitude of the public. It is essentially thanksgiving day.
Every one understands that agriculture farming is done in India by farmers , even while facing uncertainties , due to fluctuating climatic conditions and unexpected floods and drought conditions. Country certainly understands issues faced by the farmers and genuinely desires that farmers should be a prosperous community.
In view of the above reasons, farming community certainly enjoy respectable place in the society , irrespective of the fact whether the farmer is rich or poor and whatever the caste or religion he belongs to.
In such circumstances, the present agitation against the Farm Bill by the farmers in Punjab and Haryana have caused concern in the country. Many people inevitably wonder whether the farming community in Punjab and Haryana have been harmed to such an intense level by the Farm Bill to make them obstruct the train services and organize a march to Delhi in huge numbers, that would paralyse the law and order in the capital and bring the life to stand still.
However, one cannot but note that while the Farm Bill introduced by the Modi government is applicable all over India , only farmers in Punjab and Haryana have launched such intense and violent agitation. Response from the farming community in other parts of the country is lukewarm.
Now, let us examine the content of the Farm Bill and what is the justification for or against it .
In the last several decades, many political parties , agricultural economists and activists have been stating that inspite of the hard work put forth by the farmers and the calculated risks that they take in conducting the agricultural operations , they do not get adequate income commensurate with their efforts. This has been true .
The complaint is that while the farmers do not get adequate profit and the consumers of agricultural products pay high price which are frequently fluctuating in the higher side in the market, the people who are most benefited are the middle men, who are gloriously described as trading houses. Such trading houses are accused of fleecing the farmers by offering low prices and then hoarding the agricultural products to create artificial scarcity and push up the price in the market and reap huge profit in the process.
The demand over the several decades by various political parties and agricultural economists have been that the exploitation by the middle men (trading houses) should be put down by enacting strong law and ensuring that the maximum profit would go to the farmers. Obviously, this implies that the farmers should sell the products directly to the consumers avoiding the middle men.
A great attempt was made in Tamil Nadu to start a farmer’s market in different centres all over Tamil Nadu , where the farmers can sell the products directly to the consumers. This scheme was not implemented properly due to political bickerings and due to another party coming to power. The scheme caught the imagination of the farmers but have been virtually scrapped now, causing disappointment to the farming community .
While several governments in the past run by various political parties have taken earnest steps to help the farmers by launching different schemes such as minimum support price, crop insurance, soil data card, e commerce for farmers etc., the present Modi government has taken the positive steps further by introducing contract farming laws that enable buy back arrangement for the farmers from the consuming centres. It has now been firmly told that middle men should not compel the farmers to sell the farm produce to the middle men known as “mandis” in Punjab and Haryana and farmers should sell directly to the consumers, if they so desire.
With the Farm Bill, certainly, the beneficiaries are farmers and the losers are the middle men, and this is as it should be. Then why are the farmers protesting?
Now, let us examine who are the people who describe themselves as farmers.
There are absentee landlords , who live elsewhere and work elsewhere far away from their farms and give the land on lease and get lease income without directly involving in farming activity. Then, there are people, who live near the farms but engage paid workers known as “tillers” to carry out agricultural operations and they never physically work on the land themselves. Then, there are farmers with small sized land who directly work on their land. One more important class is the agricultural workers known as tillers, who do not own land but are paid workers and get wages .
Amongst those described above , what is the justification for them to protest against the Farm Bill, since they are the beneficiaries and this is what they have been asking for during the last several decades.
In such circumstances, one inevitably wonders whether the farming community have been misinformed or taken for a ride or being used by the powerful and rich traders ( mandi owners) to force the government to scrap the Farm Bill.
Unfortunately, the politicians in India use every opportunity to further their interests by organizing or encouraging one section of the society or the other to agitate and cause unrest, irrespective of what they have advocated in the past and unmindful of the overall harm to the society.
Are the farmers in Punjab and Haryana fighting a battle to safeguard the interests of trading houses ( mandi owners) and section of politicians, at their own cost ?
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