Farmers and Farm Bill.

As we all are aware by Farmer's protest in Delhi since 9 August 2020 and the reason behind that .i.e Farm bill passed by lok sabha and rajya sabha.

Let's start with those Bills,
1. The Farmers(Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm services Bill, 2020.
2. The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill,2020.
3. The Essential commodities (Amendment) Bill,2020.
The brief note about these Bills is below ~
1. The Farmers ( Employment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill,2020 ~
• It promulgated on 5 June, 2020 by lok sabha and then assured by upper houses.
• It is a legal agreement between farmers and Business owners.
• It is basically a dispute settlement mechanism.
• Business owners put conditions for the production of farm products includes delivery requirements.
• As we hear about 'one nation,one market', to customize privatization in the nation, the business owners provides the seeds for farming and the farmers have to grow that particular crop and send that whole to the owner till an contract is completed. It is fully dependent on the owner that how much they pay for a crop it could be 1 Rs or 1000 rs .It is like a buyer can specifically tell the farmer what quality/grade is required.
The deal may insecure the farmers as ~
▪︎Growing only one crop may leads to infertility of the soil.
▪︎Getting less price cannot fulfill all needs of poor farmers.
▪︎Seasonal crops are more beneficial to grow than only one crop.
2. The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Production and Facilitation) Bill,2020 ~
• It is enacted on September 17 , 2020 by lok sabha at concern of Parliament of India.
• On September 20 , 2020 , Rajya sabha enact it.
• The bill was signed on September 27 , 2020 by Ram Nath Kobind , The president of India .
• It is introduced by Narandra singh tomar , minister of Agriculture and Farmers welfare.
• It means it is talking about trading of farms goods outside at the physical premises of Mandi or APMC yard ( Agricultural Production Market Committee).
• This law give freedom to farmers that to sell there products into state or in other states.
• As we know all the subjects in India are divided into three lists ~
1. Union list.
2. State list.
3. Concurrent list.
Agriculture comes under the State list. Many states like Punjab and Haryana loss the benefit of state revenue.
• Now these mandies are spread across these nation and farmers sell their agriculture produce in these mandis' and these mandies are controlled by state government through APMC.
• Now there are restrictions for farmers if they sell their agricultural produce outside the mandies because the products that have minimum support prize need to be compulsorily go through APMC.
• Otherwise you can see small farmers that includes consumers they are even doing it now but if you are a large scale farmer and you want to be produce your productivity by the government then you have to be APMC or trade with only APMC license trader.
• So, any how this bill allow barrierfree trade in agricultural produce outside the notified APMC mandies with the help of this bill the state government will not impose taxes on sell and purchase of farm produce outside the mandies and give farmers the freedom to sell their produce at good price.
• If it is clearly visible to you this bill is only beneficial for big farmers because they will have more choices and they can actually start selling to the private players.
• On the other hand this will make a hardly difference to the small farmers . They are anyhow selling outside the mandies and due to transportation and logistic costs small farmers don't have any incentive to go long distance or interstate to sell the goods.
So, yes big farmers get better choices.

▪︎ But I also want to bring an another prospective ;
This is also a another way for the government to get out of the agricultural business.
°Once the farmer get into the market they can sell it to the anyone and can earn more.
However, farmers income will also depend on ups and downs of the market.
°Suppose the demand of the particular product in the market is low, due to low demand taxes will fall but the cost of cultivation will high . You see now a farmer will be squeezed between the cost of cultivation and low prices.
°In this situations the government will not interfere by giving any form of subsidies or any help.
° So there is a trade off , you can't have everything plus the private place are smart they buy the product at low cost and sell it at high cost to earn profits.
° So, it directly or indirectly effects the citizens of the nation and small farmers and only beneficial for business owners.
3. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 ~
• This is not a new bill, signed on September 15 , 2020 by lok sabha.
• Basically, it's a law that contains the productions, supply and certain commodities.
- As we read in title, it includes the essential commodities which contains ~
• Hoarding i. e. Suppose anybody illegally stores something like onion , potato etc. to creating Artificial demands or do black marketing such commodities. It effects the normal life of the people for example food, medicine, fuel petroleum products etc., with the help of this law , the central government can include new commodities as in when the need arises and it can also take them of the lessed once the situation improves.
• For example:-
Let's say that their is storage of onions, suppose there are some traders they have kept alot of onion in stock in order to create artificial demand. When the demand increases, obviously the price will increase. So the whole idea behind creating artificial demand is to sell a product at a higher price. Now what the central government can do is , it can bring onions under the act to make sure that onions are available to people at the right price.
Now adding amendment is removing certain commodities as essential. So, what the government of India did was it remove certain commodities as essentials.
It will allow the government to regulate the supply and price only in case of war , famine, high price rise or natural calamities.
Those communities are food items like cereals, pulses,potato, edible oil seeds and oils. These commodities are used on daily basis. Now these food items are removed from essential list that means obviously there price will go up and the government is saying that these items will be added back into the essential commodities list. The government has taken a good step towards boosting farmers income.
If there is no food item in the essential commodities list is ultimately highs chance of hoarding.
And as we know the cost of these goods increased nowadays.
The new amendment also states that the government will regulate the stocks of items based on rising prices.
Now there are few more conditions to do it:-
As we see cereals, pulses, edible oil seeds, they are non-perishable items in another words these can be stored in room temperature for months or years as they have longer shelf life. So the government is saying that they will only interfere and bring these items again in the essential commodities list. If there is a 50% increase in their retail price of these non-perishable items.
°For example ,
Let say a most favorite of your dal is 100 rs/kg will now the dal is no longer in essential list . If it all tomorrow its cost goes more than 50% .i.e. 151 rs/kg only then the government will interfere in bringing it back in the essential list. In order to control its pricing. So, 50% is the limit set for non perishable items.
For perishable items like potato, onion the limit is set to be 100% . That means if the cost of onions is 50 rs/kg , if it all cost goes up more than 100% .i.e. 101 rs/kg .Then the government interfere to bring it back into the essential commodities list in order to control its pricing. So , 100% is the limit set for perishable food items.

So, on other hand by removing these items on the essential commodities list. The government has taken a steps towards roasting farmer's income. But on the other hand the risk of hoarding increase. This leads to the profit of certain individuals at those specific goods.
If a trader, agro company or private retailers directly buy the crop from villages at appropriate price and send it to supermarket, wholesale traders and agro companies and they will sell that us at high price and the customers get it at higher price or if farmers become smart they increase the price of crop, then traders , agro companies and pvt retailers increase their price. Ultimately it pinch ours and yours pocket.
These are the reason why are farmers protest against this bill.
▪︎Goals of the protest:-
• Revolution of three farms Bills .
• Legally ensure minimum support price (MSP).
• To take back all the cases registered against aggregating farmers.
• To reduce diesel price by 50%.
°Methods of the protest:-
• Gherao
• Dharna
• Rasta rook
• Demonstration.
The protest start by 'Challo Delhi' movement by Punjab and Haryana.
On December 8, 'Bharat Bandh' an action taken by farmers in their protest. Farmers mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have been agitating on the outstrikes of Delhi against 3 Bill's passed by government.
Government will have to accept our demands: Farmer.
They have a meet with P.M Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Amarinder singh on December 9
It is definitely true that these laws is just beneficial for rich farmers but it is do true that India having more than 75% of poor farmers and those are not secure with these Bill's. So they are protesting for their rights.
With a hope, that government will stand for them, they are at peaceful Dharna to get their rights.
But still nothing is happened from government side.

I support farmers. Do you?