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2020 Farm Bill India - discussion.


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Three Bills on agriculture reforms were introduced in Parliament on Tuesday to replace the ordinances issued during the lockdown. Opposition parties and farmers groups are opposing the move to enact amendments to the Essential Commodities Act, new laws to bypass the state APMC Acts and to facilitate contract farming.

The Centre introduced the three Bills on food and agriculture reform in the Lok Sabha on Monday, amidst vehement protest from the Opposition parties and the farmers groups. The proposed legislations will replace the ordinances promulgated during the lockdown and will bring about changes to the marketing and storage of farm produce and agri commodities outside registered markets, as well as the facilitation of contract farming.

 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/agriculture-reform-bills-introduced-amidst-opposition-farmers-protests/article32603927.ece

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Agri bills would not help farmers much, will complicate their lives more: RSS affiliate farmers union

 
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BKS General Secretary Badri Narayan Chaudhary said that the bill is tilted heavily towards the corporate and will complicate the lives of farmers further.

 

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rss-affiliate-bharatiya-kisan-sangh-general-secretary-badri-narayan-chaudhary-on-farm-bills-1723251-2020-09-19

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44 minutes ago, zubinpepsi said:

So why is this bill bad for farmers??

 

It's not.  More than anything else, it gives farmers the freedom to sell their products to whomever they want.  They will not be at the mercy of the government mandis anymore.  Some politicians don't like the loss of power and are stoking the protest flames.  

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I think most farmers will continue to use the msp system in the near future. Over time i feel private players will approach the farmers.

 

The power the mandis wields was being eroded anyways. Farmers get rs 6000 now and this figure will continue to rise giving more capacity to bargain even with mandis. 

 

Overtime its wise to scale back all farming subsidies and give money in hands of farmers. Too many stories of distribution scams with seeds fertiliser etc.

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42 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

 

It's not.  More than anything else, it gives farmers the freedom to sell their products to whomever they want.  They will not be at the mercy of the government mandis anymore.  Some politicians don't like the loss of power and are stoking the protest flames.  

Most farmers leaders are demanding just one addition and that is purchasing less than msp should be punishable. Government is not doing this

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17 hours ago, Singh bling said:

Most farmers leaders are demanding just one addition and that is purchasing less than msp should be punishable. Government is not doing this

MSP is staying.  Farmers still have the option of selling at MSP.  

 

Middlemen who were marking up 8-10% commission on either side of commodity transaction are fearful that their game is up.  The APMC monopoly was a drag on farmers and abolishing the monopoly is akin to PVN-Manmohan liberalization of industrial/service economy in early 1990s. 

 

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On 9/21/2020 at 9:17 PM, BacktoCricaddict said:

MSP is staying.  Farmers still have the option of selling at MSP.  

 

Middlemen who were marking up 8-10% commission on either side of commodity transaction are fearful that their game is up.  The APMC monopoly was a drag on farmers and abolishing the monopoly is akin to PVN-Manmohan liberalization of industrial/service economy in early 1990s. 

 

Image

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bhartiya-kisan-sangh-farm-bills-in-present-form-not-acceptable/

 

Bhartiya kisan sangh the RSS's Kisan union is also opposing this. 

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Major historic change in how agri products are sold - predictably there is a lot of commentary in the "media" about this, those supporting the govt are talking it up as a major positive likely to take India's agri sector into the modern age, while for those whom Modi and BJP can do no right, are touting it as yet another blunder. 

 

What are the facts? Does anybody here have any insight?  Please share relevant articles and info here.  I'd love to access more fact-based information on this, instead of political polemics delivered with agendas.

 

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/view-the-real-scale-of-modis-farm-bet-a-move-that-carries-significant-political-risk/articleshow/78287370.cms

 

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Big changes are afoot in Indian agriculture, driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at considerable political risk. Freeing up farming markets may be as significant as dismantling industrial licenses in 1991. However, if the state’s protection withers away only to reveal a few large capitalists as the new overlords, there will be chaos and misery rather than progress and prosperity.
 

To gauge the scale of what’s being done, picture the depth of the stasis: 119 million cultivators and 144 million farmhands — taken together, 10 times Australia’s population — yoked to a marketplace designed to be anti-competitive, and denied the lift in productivity that propelled urbanization from Japan and South Korea to Taiwan and China.

“It’s like a massive old table in the center of the room, crawling with parasites.” That’s how Hemant Gaur, an entrepreneur who’s bringing technol ..
 

 

 

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It is not as hunky dory, might address poor farmers issues against rich farmers, but I don’t believe privatization without regulation is necessarily a good thing for a country like India. Social influencers in the fight now to confuse. Private companies having contracts with farmers, rich goondas in the act can threaten poor farmers on prices they want to sell. Govt needs to communicate well, not this Govt strong forte tho.

 

 

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On 9/21/2020 at 3:01 AM, BacktoCricaddict said:

 

It's not.  More than anything else, it gives farmers the freedom to sell their products to whomever they want.  They will not be at the mercy of the government mandis anymore.  Some politicians don't like the loss of power and are stoking the protest flames.  

Till now, farmers couldn't sell their products outside mandis?

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25 minutes ago, someone said:

Good thread, explains everything. Particular Point 1.

Thread makes an assumption. I am not sure how it works, but how it will ensure that farmers will go to private only when they get higher rates?

 

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Private trade will be ABOVE rate of MSP. That is the whole point. Farmer will go to private people when they get rates MORE than MSP. 2/10

and another assumption. How does it ensure that farmer will have thousands of private players to choose from and neither of them offers good rate at all or say rate below MSP.

 

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There will not be just one but thousands of private players to choose from. Competition by very nature kills monopoly of buyers(as exists now). 6/10
 

 

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6 hours ago, coffee_rules said:

It is not as hunky dory, might address poor farmers issues against rich farmers, but I don’t believe privatization without regulation is necessarily a good thing for a country like India. Social influencers in the fight now to confuse. Private companies having contracts with farmers, rich goondas in the act can threaten poor farmers on prices they want to sell. Govt needs to communicate well, not this Govt strong forte tho.

 

 

Also the "technology" they introduce may not be a good thing. We have heard about GMO foods in US and companies like Monsanto which has offices in Bengaluru may benefit from this. Result maybe monopoly of food by few supermarkets. The game plan is laid out - get the farmers indebted and sell their land, big companies like Reliance may consolidate all arable land and do large scale farming. Goondas may not even come into play as they can do with legal means. As you said, privatization without regulation can only mean the wild west scenario in India.

Contract farming or corporate farming as the opposition says is a double edged sword. Its just a transfer or food lords from the govt to corporate. As is often the case with India, govt however corrupt it maybe is considered better than private companies. An analogy is banking - SBI or IOB is considered much more safer than HDFC or ICICI. Its not an indicator of one being better than the other but the people's confidence and hence preference.

Congress may have its own motives but I don't think they are totally wrong here. Rather tighter rules in govt restricting corruption regarding farming and increase in the trading prices is much more viable at this moment. Its a hard task but its much more rewarding than take the easy option of privatizing

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