Why Farmers Are Protesting? What is Farmers Bill?

From the last two weeks, we are seeing that the farmers in the North Indian states of the Punjab and Haryana are protesting; after the Government of India passed three new Agriculture Ordinances, on the 5th of June, 2020. It is a massive protest against the Government of India by the farmers. They are blocking National Highways near Pipli, Kurukshetra, Haryana. In Punjab, there were political outrage have been seen, after Akali Dal quits NDA (National Democratic Alliance).

(Image Source : unsplash.com)

(The Opinion)

In India, the major problems or conflicts behind the protest with the new bills or acts are that the people do not understand the necessary information about the particular bills or acts, although some of even don't know the name of the bills. 

What is Farmers' Bill 2020?

If we have a look at the Current Market system, at a present time farmers have 3 ways to sell their produce or kirn or plantation or crop. 

1) Local Markets (मंडी)

Local Markets means the most nearest markets in which farmers can sell their produce easily. In Hindi it is being called as Mandi (मंडी). If in local market farmers do not get thier expected price than they have another option, which is APMC markets.

2) APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee)

The APMC markets were established by the Government of India, even these type of markets are often called as Government Markets (सरकारी मंडी). Currently we have at least 6500 APMC markets across the country. In this type of markets, the government issues the authorized license to the Commission agents and traders (They are also called as Middle Man). Farmers have to go to the nearest APMC markets and after quality chack of the produces, It is then auctioned off. Aftermath, traders will buy that crop from the farmers. Also they have to pay a tax which is from 0.5% to 8% (It may vary by states). 

3) Minimum Support Price (MSP)

In the last chance, farmers have MSP which is Minimum Support Price, where farmers can sell thier crop directly to the Government. 

What is Farmers Bill 2020?

Basically there are total 3 bills.

1) Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.

 

APMC has limitations like, the retailers and wholesalers cannot directly buy the produce from the farmers. Here, only licensed traders can buy the produce from the farmers. Also, the Retailers and wholesalers have to buy crop from this middle men (Traders). Because of the middle man, the consumers have to pay a huge amount for the crops.

For Example : The onlion which is sometimes being sold at the price of Rs. 100/KG, but the farmers only get Rs. 10/KG. This is how the traders are getting profit from it. 

According to this Bill, private markets can be established with APMC, where government won't be able to control the market. Farmers can run the market on their own.

Aim - Farmers can directly sell their produce to the consumers.

2) Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

This Bill will work according to the Contract Farming, where farmers can sign a contract directly with the institutional buyers. The price will be fixed before the crop grows. After the fixation of the price, both the institute and farmer cannot change the price. 

Aim - The farmers can run their rights on their produces.  

3) Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. 

This Bill was passed in 1995. This Bill suggests that any items mentioned in this list will not be stored above the fix limit. There are some amendments which removes some items from the list. Like Cereals, Pulses, Potato, Edible Oil, etc. 

Aim - To avoid Black Marketing.

Why The Farmers Are Protesting?

Not only farmers but the some state governments are also protesting against this Bill. 

According to the some state governments who are protesting, said that the produces which will be sold under the private markets, will be tax free. So The tax which was being collected by the Government in APMC, will not be collected anymore. 

Punjab collects at least Rs. 3500 Crores of Tax from the APMCs.

According to the farmers, if private markets will be opened, consumers will not prefer APMCs and after it the government will lift up its control from the APMC. This will demolish the APMCs. 

Farmers are also saying that there will be no place for MSP (Minimum Support Price), so there should be a chance of exploitation against farmers. 

Farmers are saying that there must be an MSP and the crop price would be in accordance to the MSP. Also, according to the leaders of Farmers, the storage capacity is very less and every year tons of crop is being wasted.