New farm policy won’t abolish APMCs, says Karandlaje

UDUPI: Stating that the farm reform bills are in favour of farmers, Udupi- Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje, while speaking to reporters in Udupi on Saturday said, contrary to what’s being alleged by opposition parties, Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) will not be abolished through the new farm bills.

“Farmers will have the choice to sell their produce for a competitive price in the open market. This will help small farmers who possess less than an acre of farmland, as contract farming has now been provided with the legal protection.

Farmers take the extreme step of ending their lives as they get poor price quote for their produce. However, now, these bills will help them,” she added. Karandlaje said when farmers had an obligation of supplying their produce to APMCs, they were not getting the right price. “The Essential Commodities Act 1995 that controlled the supply of certain commodities like cereals, pulses, oil seeds, onion, and potatoes, used to make excessive regulatory interference on farmers’ right to sell the produce in the open market.

The new Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020 removed the above commodities from the list of essential commodities. When there are no proper facilities like warehouses, cold storage facilities in the APMCs across the country, it had just turned into an arrangement to nurture the interest of middlemen, not farmers.

This also led to many farmers to abandon their farm land and migrate to cities in search of daily wage works. The Modi government has decided to safeguard the interest of farmers and hence the bills were passed,’’ she added. While speaking on the protests by the farmers’ associations against the bills, the MP said they were either misguided or did not read the bills properly.