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NOTE: Farm bill 2020 can also be called Farm bill 2021because the protest started in 2020 continued until 2021 against the farm bill.
Farm Bill 2021, the central government have withdrawn all three farm bill. On November 24th, 2021 Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi publically have withdrawn all the three farm bills for 2020.
Narendra Modi has spoken that due to prolong and intense protest and agitation against the farm bill 2020 by the farmers had urged them to take this decision. Then the farm bill 2021 will be discussed in the winter session ahead.
As there was an aggressive agitation taken place in the majority of the states. Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh had furious protests.
The farmers were violent and try to drive the tractor over the polices. Due to violent actions from the farmers made policies to safeguard and took some rash decisions.
Protest on Farm bill 2020 to many farmers’ lives. Even this protest has continued for more than 100 days and still, the cold war is burning all across the states.
More than 600 activists had died over the protest against farm bill 2020. So, the situation was worst and had devasting effects on the government. As a result, the Central government has withdrawn the Farm Bill 2020.
What are the three farm bill laws that made the farmers protest?
Is the farm bill good or bad?
Why do farmers protest against the farm bill 2020?
These are questions are running around one mind. So, here is a complete explanation of about withdrawal of Farm bill 2021. An in-depth explanation of features of farm bill 2020.
Farm bill 2021 withdrawal
Farm bills are made to encourage and promote farmers’ revenue. Overall farm bills will have a positive impact on the farmer’s profits. On Contrary, Farm bill 2020 triggered the farmers to take on the protest against the government.
The central government has declared three farm bills in 2020 for beneficial of the framers. So, it is known had farm bill 2020.
These three farm bills are
- Farmer Produce trade and commerce
- Farmers Agreement on Price
- Essential Commodities
Farmer Produce Trade and Commerce: Farm bill first law
This law is completely on the supply of the farmer’s produce. As a known fact, Indian farmers are never going to get some high margins on the yield. The main reason for their exploitations is traditional selling methods.
Traditionally, farmers will sell the yield in the APMC( Agriculture Produce Market Committee ). APMC is a government-owned marketing community. Here, Government took the decision to have APMC to save farmers from exploitation.
In APMC the buyers are all verified by the government. So, there will no chances of cheating or mistrust. In APMC there will be MSP ( Minimum Support Price), which empowers farmers to get a certain sum on specific food grains.
So, the farmers will get good margins on their yield, But the harsh reality is hidden from everyone. In reality, APMC buyers will negotiate and fix the rates. Then in the bidding, the minimum support price will be nowhere.
As the farmers are eager to sell their yield in APMC, so they cant wait for days to have good MSP. Even farmers have a lot of commitments to fulfill. So, the situation of the farmers will be helpless.
Even APMC is not accessible to very few farmers. Some farmers will travel over 100s of kilometers to reach the APMC. Again farmers had to incur all the transport expenditures. Here state government won’t help and procure any benefits.
Eventually, farmers will have their own problems and urgency. On the other side, APMC buyers are negotiating to bring down the MSP. So, the situation is getting worse and devasting for the farmer’s revenue.
As a result, farmers will have to sell to the demanded price that is less than MSP.
Here, the first law of farm bill 2020, Farmers trade and commerce come into act. Here farms will have the free choice to sell on APMC or any other private company.
So, here farmers get all the benefits of selling. Even, private companies will give good margins as well. Even there will be no taxes on the deal.
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Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance: Second law of Farm bill
Here farmers will get the power to demand the right prices for their yield. Now, farmers are free to sell to any private companies without any contact of middlemen.
Farmers can make an agreement with the private sectors for the price. So, there will now chance of misconduct. As a result, farmers will get the price and there will be no unfair practices made in the APMC.
Even farmers will get a lot of benefits from contract farming. In contract farming, farmers will get the on-demand price of the yield in pre-harvest time. Sometimes there will rise and drop in the prices of the yield. There will be frequent flotation in the prices of the crops due to calamities, demand, and mismanagement.
Here, farmers will be saved from all the above problems. Because they will get the on-demand price even after harvesting and selling it next season.
Farmers Agreement On Price Assurance laws gives full privilege to the farmers on negotiations. Even private companies can give more margins if the quality of yield is fine.
Eventually, farmers have the upper hand in the race. So, there will no chances of unfair activities or misconduct, or ill practices against the innocent farmers.
Essential Commodities Act: Third law in farm bill 2020
Here farmers can keep stocks of food grains such as pulses, cereals, potato, onion, edible oilseeds, and oils. So, farmers can sell the yield whenever there will be demand for specific items in the market.
Earlier, farmers could not able to store the food grains for long period. Even the rates of certain food grains are fallen steeply, then also farmers as to sell the yield helplessly.
So, Essential Commodities Act provides farmers the privilege to store the yield. But in some emergency circumstances, farmers as to liable according to the central government decisions.
Ultimately, Farm bill 2020 gives powerful privileges for the farmers never before. But why farmers are protesting against Farm Bill 2020?
Why there was the withdrawal of farm bill 2021.
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Protest against farm bill 2021
NOTE: Farm bill 2020 can also be called 2021 Farm bill 2021 because the protest started in 2020 continued until 2021.
Farm bill 2020 has so many beneficiaries factors for the farmers but still, the farmers protested.
Here are some of the reasons for farmers protests against the farm bill
Fear of losing MSP( Minimum Support Price)
For decades, farmers are relying on the MSP for the yield, But the farm bill 2020, did not mention MSP. So, farmers were intimate on hearing such shocking news.
Here, farmers don’t trust even private companies as well. Always farmers are having misinformation or wrong assumption against corporate companies. Farmers believe that private companies are prone to cheating and unfair practices.
Minimum Support Price is the only lifeline to the farmers. If MSP is not there, then farmers do not have any hope of return for their yield.
Even farmers do not have the power to fight against private companies if they try to frame the farmers.
In addition, the government too will not have much power to have a check on corporate practices.
Ultimately, farmers are protesting to recover the MSP factor. Then farmers easily grow their crops with hopes of Minimum Support Price.
As a result, this is one of the main reasons for farmers’ protest against the farm bill. So, there was intense protest and agitation all across the Indian states for more than 100 days.
APMC and Opposition parties play
There are speculations that agitation is been done by the people from the opposition party. As everyone knows the opposition party always tries to undermine or undervalue the policies or acts made by the ruling party.
So, here is also the same scenario is followed. Even people are motivating the farmers to do strike. In addition, they are giving false information to the farmers.
So, here APMC is going to be vulnerable. Because Farm bill 2020 gives so many privileges to the farmers to sell to the private companies.
As a result, there might be possibilities that APMC’s higher official influence has taken part in the agitation and made it intense and violent.
Here, culprits are al-around and finding the right one is difficult. The irony is that the opposition party is opposing the farm bill now. But when they were ruling party earlier even they trying to implement these Farm bill.
Farmers and Private companies relationships
Farmers are not getting the right prices in the APMC markets. But farmers are also reluctant going to make a contract with corporate people.
Because the farmers have wrong assumptions against the private companies. So, always prefer to sell their goods in the APMC even though they get fewer profit margins. Now also many farmers are hesitating to make a contract with the big corporate companies.
Even farmers have false thoughts that private people might cheat and capture their land. So, now farmers are against the farm bill.
So, issues on farm bill 2021 are going to be a more intense protest. As the government is not responding to the farmer’s agitation for a long time.
However, it takes time to understand the real private companies’ policies from the farmer’s perspective.
Benefits of Farm Bill 2021
As farmers are making huge protests on Farm Bill 2021 for a long time. Here, the farm bill has many benefits for the farmers.
Here are some of the advantages of the farm bill
No Tax
When farmers make a contract with the private sector, then farmers are not liable to pay any tax to the government. So, farmers can greatly benefit from it.
Earlier, farmers have to pay taxes from 1 to 10% as an APMC fee. Then another benefit is that farmers can even sell their yield intra- trade. Means farmers are free to sell outside of the state as well.
Private company investment
If the farmers and private sector relationships are good then the private sector will fund farmers to make the best quality of yield, In precise, private companies empowers farmers financially by providing the best fertilizers, agricultural equipment, pesticides, and infrastructure development.
Hence, there will healthy investment in the agricultural field.
Elimination of the middle man
For ages, the middle man are exploiting the farmers. These people will never buy the yield at a good rate. However, farmers have to sell to him due to a lack of awareness and knowledge.
So, there will always be deprivation and exploitation of the farmers. Now, as of the farm bill, 2021 farmers are free to sell their yield to the private sector. There is the complete elimination of the middle man.
Farmers get the full privilege to trade without the middle man. This is one of the major benefits of the farm bill.
High profits for farmers
If farmers are trying to trade with big companies then they can have a fairly high profits margin. Now top companies are empowering farmers to get a good yield.
So, farmers will get a fair price for their yield. There will be no scam like in the APMC market. If farmers get more profits then indirectly drives the Indian economy.
Eventually, these are some of the crucial advantages of the farm bill of India. But many farmers are not understanding the real boosting factor. So, they are protesting intensely to withdraw the farm bill.
Some speculation is being made that the protest is led by the opposition parties, middle man, and APMC community.
However, the Indian government has taken back the Farm bill 2021. Then they will make some modifications and present in the winter session of the parliament.
So, we have to wait for further updates from the Indian government.