Farm Bills 2020: Will Agricultural Reform Bear Fruit?

The two out of three farm reform bills passed by parliament has created perplexity all over the nation, especially in Punjab and Haryana. The bills passed suggests promotion and facilitation (Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce Bill), Empower and protection (Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance), and Amendment (Farm Service Bill and Essential Commodities Bill). However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that these changes would bring in various benefits to the farmers. He tweeted "A watershed moment in the history of Indian agriculture! Congratulations to our hardworking farmers on the passage of key bills in Parliament, which will ensure a complete transformation of the agriculture sector as well as empower crores of farmers."

What Do the Bills Claim

The first one-Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce Bill has been passed to promote and facilitate farmers would enable the farmers to sell their harvest at places other than the government regulated mandis. However, this idea does not intend to close the mandis but to provide farmers a proliferated choices. Thus, if a farmer feels he is getting a better deal from the private buyers then he can opt to sell them instead of the mandi. 

The Farm Service and Essential Commodities Bill have been proposed to permit economic agents to stock up their commodities without the tension of it being prosecuted for hoarding. While the third one- the Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance Bill would offer a framework for farmers to venture into contract farming. This Bill ensures a healthy remuneration, as the farmers could sign a contract with a company to produce the harvest of the company's choice. 

Hence, it is believed that three Bills would liberate the farming market and also aid in making this system more efficient and make way for a better price for all concerns especially the farmers. Nonetheless, the central focus is to improvise the country's farming and elevate its remunerative from its present state. 

Protester's Viewpoint

Though the Bills claim to transform the lives of the farmers and others involved in farming, the Bills passed brought in an uproar across the country especially in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharastra, and some parts of South India. As they believe that the Bills are ploy created by the government to eliminate the traditional procedures that guarantee minimum support prices (MSPs). Precisely, the MSPs work on the government regulated mandis and not on private companies. 

These MSPs are more prominently applied in Haryana and Punjab thus, farmers of these regions riot against the newly passed bills. As they believe these move would hinder their remuneration and suspect whether the big companies would do justice to their hard work. Farmers have the potential to influence through their electoral process but, this is would not work with the corporates and they may not bargain effectively. They feel that the Bill would limit the effectiveness of the mandis and give a free hand to the big companies. 

Although, the protestors also believe that the move would weaken the farmer's negotiation especially the uneducated farmers during their negotiation with the big corporates. In addition to this, the Bill for stocking up the commodities would enable the corporates to have the upper hand in dictating the price of the commodity to the farmers.