Analysis of farmer’s Act, 2020

Introduction
The Farm Bill 2020 refers to three agricultural bills passed by the Parliament Farmers
Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment
and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and the Essential
Commodities (Amendment).
The Farmer’s Bill 2020 is ‘to-be legalized’ legislation which would allow the Indian farmers in
selling their harvested crops outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)
mandis, without paying any state taxes or fees. Just like a coin having its two sides, almost
all the legislations being enacted in India would also have certain good as well as bad effects
on both the government as well as the citizens. One of the major reasons because of which
the farmers exhibit their disapproval towards the Farmer’s Bill 2020 is because of the APMC
Act.

Overview of the Bills

In detail, for the past two decades, the governments of each state had set up large markets
under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee, and as a result, most of the present
day’s huge markets is under the control and supervision of APMC. The problem that the
Farmers would face from this is that, even though farmers have been given complete rights
to sell their cultivated crops to any markets of their wish, they would not be able to sell their
goods to the huge markets from where they would get maximum wage, as mostly all such
kinds of huge markets, which is considered to be having the capacity to offer large amounts
of wages to the farmers comes under the APMC Act. Once the Farmer’s Bill is completely
implemented, there would not be any strong and effective controlling body like the APMC
and hence, there would not be any proper controlling over such affairs in the coming years.
Hence, there is a fear among the farmers that since there would not be a controlling and
supervising body like APMC, even though they would get relatively higher amounts of wages
for their products in the initial years, it would not be the same in the coming years as there
would be an intervention by the private organizations and private parties, and exploitation
of the provisions of the bill by them is almost inevitable. And the Farmers’ Produce Trade
and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill does not give any statutory backing to MSP.
The farmers have nothing to do with the legal system but everything to do with the MSP, a
price at which they sell their produce, there is not even a mention of either “MSP” or
“Procurement” in the said bill. The government declares MSPs for crops, but there has been
no law mandating their implementation. Further, the state governments are also strongly
showing their oppression towards the bill because if the bill is completely enacted, the state
government would lose the Mandi tax, which is a major part of the revenue source for
them. In fact, with some kinds of implementations and amendments, the Farmer’s Bill does
not affect any of the previously enacted legislations, but only gives the farmers a better
opportunity to sell their products for a better wage.

The Essential Commodities Act omits oil, onions, potatoes, cereals, pulses from the essential
commodities list. Once these items are removed from the list the Government cannot
interfere in their pricing system which would eventually lead to hoarding by the corporate
companies. It results in increase in price of such commodities which is a burden to the
consumer. The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act of
2020 promotes contract farming which at the initial stages is beneficial but at long term it
would lead to domination of the farmers by the corporates. The Farmers Empowerment and
Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act of 2020 provides scope for
the needed persons to interact directly with the farmers and also promotes online trading.
The farmers fear that it would lead to disappearance of Mandi system besides, they also are
not familiar about the aspects of online trading and fear that they might be cheated.
Conclusion

Even though the Bill would create facilities for the farmers to obtain more wage for their
products by creating a form of open market, it is not expected to be the same in a long run
and is the major fear of the farmers. In my opinion, the Farmer’s Bill would be implemented
in its complete and effective form if the farmers are given all such freedom to sell their
products in the markets of their wish and is also supervised and guarded (not controlled) by
an organization or a committee which would prevent any malpractices from taking place in
an open market world. Let us hope that such changes would be brought by the government
and the Farmer’s Bill would be implemented soon, equally satisfying the farmers, buyers,
and the government.