Agriculture Reforms and Pessimistic Privatisation.

 It is hard to decode the three newly passed bills but it becomes a necessity as it will be directly affecting the majority.

Questionable Government ¿

        

    What is magnifying the tensions across states?. These are nothing but life-changing reforms (stated and upheld by PM) recently passed by the upper house (Rajya Sabha). One must be able to smell the gamble in the time one takes to read out the names of the bills 😅. These reforms stand out in the list of certain major decisions taken by the Modi government not because of the protest associated but because of the common background of pessimistic privatization. The question is why the right soul is so much interested in privatization may it be railways, telecom, or agriculture. These are just some major noticeable changes but there are some unnoticeable, timid conversions of other Public Sector Undertakings (PSU's). Privatization can favor competition and thus can stabilize prices for the common men (👍) but how the same scheme can benefit poor and marginalized farmers?. With whom will they compete? Well-established traders or businessmen or with each other?. The answer is simple and lies with an increase in suicidal cases. One thing the current government must understand that our GDP is based on agriculture and corporatization like the western world cannot minimize the dollar-rupee difference. Why the government is interested in repeating the same mistake and failures of the western world? Why, why, and why; there are so many to ask but the scheme is not that bad (➕) as it seems until they make stringent laws and establishes mechanisms.

Concept Behind @

        So let us have a look towards our first and the most debatable bill which will allow farmers to sell their produce beyond the boundaries of districts and states. As per data, only 6% are able to avail MSP's and are mostly from the northern states (receiving higher taxes from Mandis). The rest 94% will sell to private vendors with their own profits or losses. Now this 94% will have a chance to search for better buyers across the country. Again in this 84% are small and marginalized farmers who barely think to cross boundaries of their own district. These farmers surely cannot afford the transportation cost then about whom the government is talking about? It is very clear that the concept of middlemen must be trashed but is this the only way? Markets outside APMC will attract sellers for a limited period of time until they establish themselves in the market and dethrones APMC's. They will portray their good character for a specific period of time and after that, they will enjoy their own monopoly. Adding to this the farmers cannot plea to the court as these matters will be redirected to the bureaucracy. And where bureaucracy comes into play transparency vanishes. Yes! the APMC will stay and thus the MSP's but will the government explain for how long? If they know also they are not going to tell you. Then comes the second idea of contractual agreement with buyers to reduce market predictability, eliminate intermediaries, and boost farmers' income. It is not that opposable as this entirely benefits farmers unless they remain vigilant. Then the third bill, which completely allowed traders to hold the essential commodities until they receive higher remunerative and make consumers suffer. This bill will definitely add the infrastructural developments in storage capacities but it will be of what use when the consumer will suffer.

Solution ➹

        So what lies in the solution? Complete boycott of the currently passed bills? NO! this is not possible for at least 3 years. Then? The intermediate way is to strengthen the APMC network and its mechanism. Removing middlemen and improving transparency by encouraging E-NAM. Allowing competition outside APMC's with fixed MSP's on all the perishable and non-perishable commodities. Allowing only licensed competitors paying market fees like it is paid in APMC yards. This will allow state governments to collect good revenues that can be invested in strengthening this complete framework. Also, Farmer must be able to take any trader to the court against malicious activities. And the most important, setting up of MRP's (maximum retail prices) so that if a trader tries to store the commodity for long, he will get the fixed price incentives which will help to control their monopolies. This will directly benefit consumers from paying higher retail prices.

        

        

        These measures (if adopted) can firmly establish the Prime Minister's vision of doubling farm income and can achieve sustainability in livelihood. Otherwise, you can just stay with the ray of hope put forth by our dearest PM through GST, Demonetisation, and Atmanirbhar Bharat scams.

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