(ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FARMER ORDINANCES)
You must have heard about recent protests of farmers in various states across India. But why are these farmers protesting? What are the ordinances which forced the farmers amidst this COVID-19 to come out on roads and protest? How have government been dealing with it so far?
We will cover these questions and so many others you need to know about the present situation. So let’s begin……
What are APMC Mandis and how they came into existence?
The history of APMCs dates back to the time when even after many years of independence farmers were still exploited by the landlords and money lenders. The government in order to protect farmers brought into action Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in 1965. It regulates on the principle that first the produce should be brought to the market area and then sold through auction.
- In these market areas, traders should have a license that allows the Government to keep in check the malpractices.
- These markets have everything registered.
- To stop the exploitation by traders, MSP (Minimum support price) for essential crops was setup.
- If traders would not be able to procure the crops, the Government would at MSP.
Question 1: What are the three ordinances and how have they been changed over time?
In June 2020 Government proposed amendments in The Essential Commodities Act 1955, Agricultural reforms under the Atam Nirbhar Plan which are as following:
- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) ordinance 2020 (ECA)
- The Farming Produce Trade and commerce (Promotion and facilitation) Ordinance, 2020
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020
According to 1st point that is ECA, Essential Food commodities such as edible oil, pulses, sugar, etc. will be deregulated which in simpler terms means that Government no longer will stock the Produce of farmers until and unless mandatory in calamities like flood, famine, etc. There won’t be any storage limits or movement restrictions. Also, the Government has recently made some changes in the ECA proposed on June 5, 2020, which defines the trade area. A trade area defined by section 2(a) of the first ordinance as any location or area, place of production, aggregation from where farmers produce can be taken.
The 2nd amendment defines Traders as Processor, Exporter, miller, retailer, and wholesaler. This definition excludes Commission agents. Under this, any person with a PAN Card can buy farmers produce in Trade Area. It claims to eliminate intermediaries resulting in full realization of price.
According to the 3rd amendment the farmers can sell their produce online or offline and if not paid back, the traders will have to pay huge penalties. It is supposed to end the 8.5 percent of Market fee which compromised of 3% of the used to state which was used as revenue by the state, 2.5% to the commission agents, and the remaining 3% to the rural development but outside the APMC Mandis premises.
You all must be wondering that everything looks perfect and if the current amendments are going to cut the market fee, exclude the intermediaries, make it easy for farmers not to obligate by the boundaries of APMC mandis then why are states, farmers, and commission agents protesting?
Why are protests being held by different organizations, states, farmers, and commission agents?
- The definition of trade area does not include the premises of APMC Mandis and other sectors under the State APMC Act which means no regulation or registration, no Minimum support price, no one to check if farmers are exploited or not, and instead of auctions farmers would compete with each other and will be paid according to their performance.
A system where farmers are pitted against one another on basis of their performance is known as tournament system. In this system, farmer owns everything that costs money and companies own everything that makes money.
- This new ordinance doesn’t talk about MSP, which means if a farmer is going to sell the produce outside the market area then he/she is not sure of the price they are going to get. Only 6% of the farmers sell their produce at the MSP assigned by the Government. The future won’t promise them the price of their crops anywhere near the MSP.
In a recent interview by Naghma Sahar on NDTV, Rakesh Tikait a representative from Bharatiya Kisan Union said the foremost demand they have is of fixed MSP.
- Commission agents are verified under the working of APMC mandis as they require a license but farmers cannot trust trader under the new law.
On average 28,000 commission agents in Punjab and 32,000 commission agents in Haryana are going to be directly affected. Was the pandemic alone not enough to render people jobless?
- This is also going to increase the problem of hoarding. In order to benefit, companies might hoard the crops when the price falls down. Although it is supposed to increase the relations of farmers and traders as a result of these amendments, traders will be benefited making the agriculture sector more corporatized.
- If there would be no taxes outside the market areas, in order to save taxes no company would enter the Market mandi.
- No doubt, the traders will provide better incentives in the initial days, and once the Mandi system collapses the farmers won’t have any other choice, which monopolies the system.
The uneasiness gains strength with the failure of states such as Bihar which abolished The Agriculture Produce Market Committee in 2006 giving no green signal to rubber-stamp the bills.
What are the demands of farmers?
- Rollback of ordinance
- Protect Mandi market
- Loans to be cleared
- National law for the regulation of MSP
Despite the protests of states, farmers, and commission agents Lok sabha and Rajya sabha have passed the bill.
A question that has been stuck in my mind is that despite the time of the pandemic, why was this decision taken by the Government in a hasty manner? An ordinance is an emergency situation step and this could wait, only after proper discussions and debates, it should have been developed in a constructive way. Bhartiya Kishan Union, Anaj Mandi Arhtiyas Association from Haryana, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, and All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) from Hyderabad has come forward to fight but our Government has been jumping with their own decisions.
Let’s see how have similar models turned out in other countries?
The US has been practicing corporate farming for years. It has not only lead to a handful of corporations controlling the market but also the increased number in suicide rates of farmers. According to the article “Corporate control of Agriculture” by Farm Aid, almost 40% of the agriculture market is controlled by a few corporate. This is not only harmful to the local communities but also for the competitive market.
According to sources by GRAIN which is a small international organization that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Large investors from all around the world are not suddenly investing in the agriculture sector to solve the problem of world hunger or eliminate any type of poverty prevailing in the agriculture sector. They want purely and simply profit. They want to tear down burdensome land laws that constrain foreign investments and their control over food exports. In the same source when asked whether a transfer of agriculture technology would be welcomed in Philippine, the farmers from Negros Occidental responded that they are satisfied with their own knowledge and sustainable practices.
If these practices have not worked in developed countries like France, the US, and even in the Indian state Bihar, is it important to implement them in our whole agriculture sector which needs more protection despite making it more vulnerable?
This subject has mass involvement of political parties opposing and supporting it. In a speech by Narendra Modi on September 22, 2020, he addressed farmers and said current ordinances do not remove the Minimum Support Price. Maybe the problems lie here only that the ordinances do not specify crucial terms such as MSP and APMC.
Eight members of Rajya Sabha were suspended for unruly behavior in a debate regarding the passing of farmer ordinances on September 20, 2020. The members suspended are KK Ragesh (CPM), Syed Nazir Hussain (Congress), Rajeev Satav (Congress), Ripun Boren (Congress), Sanjay Singh (AAP), Derek O’Brien (TMC), Dola Sen (TMC), and Elamaram Kareem (CPM). Congress has decided to hold a nationwide protest on 24th September. To withdraw the bills they have also decided to collect a total of 2 crore signatures from farmers and submit them after to President Ram Nath Kovind.
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