Even after strong opposition from the opposition, the government was successful in passing the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Simplification) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Agreements Bill, 2020 in Parliament. It will become law after the President's signature.
The question of agricultural experts is that the system of an open market for the farmers could not provide economic protection to the farmers from Bihar to America-Europe, why is the government expected from the same market in India? Now the biggest question before the farmers is that after the implementation of this law, what options will be left in front of them? Will it give them economic strength, or will they keep them laborers in their own fields as the opposition is claiming?
Agriculture expert Devinder Sharma told Amar Ujala that the market has been open for American and European farmers for a long time. The governments here also provide huge subsidies to their farmers every year (about Rs 18,10,806 crore this year), but even then the farmers there are heavily in debt. The total debt on American farmers has reached Rs 31,28,500 crore. In our country, Bihar abolished APMC mandis in its own place in 2006, but even today the condition of farmers of Bihar is in worse condition. With this, there are lakhs of times better farmers in Punjab-Haryana where the APMC system is being implemented better.
The government argues that a better system of storage will be encouraged with the encouragement of the open market. This will give the farmers a fair price for crops and there will be no shortage of essential things. But the experience of Bihar shows that despite being an open market, traders here did not invest in storage. Even today farmers of Bihar have to turn to the markets of Delhi to sell their crops.
Why 94 percent of farmers are poor
According to the Shantakumar Committee on Agricultural Affairs, only six percent of the country's farmers are able to benefit from the MSP from APMC mandis. That is, the remaining 94 percent of farmers are still relying on the open market. About 42 thousand APMC mandis were required in the country, but to date, only about seven thousand mandis could be established. This is the reason why even today 94% of the farmers are dependent on the open market.
If the open market system were very good, the condition of these 94 percent of farmers would have been better. But this class is not only steeped in huge debt but is also leaving the harvest. It should be clear from this that this system has failed to give them financial security. In such a situation, if it is applicable to the whole country, then how will it be beneficial for the rest of the farmers? Experts are questioning the government's intention on this issue. According to the OSCB report, farmers in India have lost Rs 42 lakh crore in the last few years.
What could be the solution
Devinder Sharma says that in the Corona era when large sectors of the country collapsed, only the agricultural sector kept the country hopeful. This is the only sector where growth has been recorded. Demand for other things also increased in rural areas. Even today 600 million people of the country are directly connected in this sector. Whether by increasing agricultural subsidies or through direct benefit transfers, if the purchasing power of these farmers was increased, they would increase demand for all products in the market. This would have strengthened other industries as well.
Minimum Support Price becomes mandatory for every market
Chaudhary Pushpendra Singh, president of the Kisan Shakti Sangh, says that the biggest strength of the APMC Act was that the farmer here would get a minimum support price for his crop, whereas with the open market, which trader would buy a crop at what price, He and the farmer will decide. But it is feared that when the farmer needs more money, in that case, these traders will take advantage of his helplessness and buy the crop at cheaper prices. This will harm farmers.
The central government says that APMC mandis will not be abolished and farmers will be able to sell their crops here as well. That is, farmers can continue to take advantage of MSP in APMC mandis, but they will be able to sell their crops there if the price is high in the market. This will benefit the farmers in any case.
At first glance, the availability of a double market for farmers seems to be fine, but farmer leaders are worried that a trader has to pay tax to buy crops in APMC mandis. To avoid this, he would buy crops from the outside market. This will gradually eliminate the APMC mandis. After this, the trader will buy the crop in the open market at his desired price.
The only solution to this problem can be that the government should decide in law that even in the open market, the purchase of crops will not be done below the MSP. With this, traders in the open market will not be able to exploit the farmers financially.