Thousands of farmers have surrounded Delhi, choking the exit points and handicapping the system while protesting against the farm bills. The agitation that was mainly originated in Punjab has been joined by many from Haryana and even by the fringe UP areas demanding the rollback of the farm ordinances to save the APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) across the country. The government is in a tricky position where silence is as dangerous as using the force. Fortunately, there hasn’t been any violence or major ruckus involved till now but with a mob of thousands breathing down Delhi’s neck, you can’t guarantee protests in a peaceful manner forever. This is a dangerous precedence that has become a trend nowadays – hold the capital hostage until government yields.
The APMCs formed in 1965 to enable and empower the farmers who were being exploited at the hands of Zameendars was a welcome change at that time. But like the other sectors under complete government regulation, bureaucracy and corruption seeped in gradually turning these APMCs into state government’s puppet and middle man’s paradise, who would squeeze the farmer’s share for their own good. The monopoly of APMCs forced the farmers to sell their crops in these mandis at MSPs, which weren’t revised for years. State governments would appoint their own people as traders who have created a nexus which is impossible to break for the farmers. These traders even have the liberty to deny the farmers from selling their produce in APMCs in the name of quality and what not, who would then be left with no choice but to give away their crops to these traders or to agents appointed by them for almost nothing. No surprise that the condition of farmers has consistently deteriorated overtime. With 86% small scale farmers in this country, the average annual income of farmers stands at less than 80 K INR whereas their average loan stands at greater than 1 L INR. Apparently, the current system is rotten and hasn’t helped the farmers much. But that’s how monopoly turns out to be, isn’t it?
When challenged by the current reforms, the same unions who had remained deaf to farmers’ concerns for decades have suddenly woken up from slumber rallying thousands of them by stating that its farmers who are under threat when it’s clearly them. According to them, it’s a move by the government to make the APMCs obsolete overtime and help the corporate takeover the agriculture sector.
In the three reforms, nowhere it has been mentioned that APMCs will be abolished but that more provisions would be introduced for the farmers to sell their crops at their own will. However, since these unions are so confident on their incompetence, the only way that they envisage to survive in the future is by running the race alone. It’s always easier to retain a customer than to woo a new one. With all the farmers being their customer base, all that these APMCs need to do is weed out its shortcomings and make it more appealing for the farmers so that they don’t stray away. But at the end of the day it should be about the Farmers and not the Mandis.
However, the agony of the situation is that it’s the farmers who are risking their lives based on the wrong interpretations fed to them by these unions to fight for a system that has been holding them back for a long time now. The bigger questions are, why rumor mongering has become so easy? How these unions are able to mislead the masses to overlook such pathbreaking reforms and sell speculations so easily? Anyone can say that how do I or for that matter someone supporting the bill knows any better than the farmers who are going to get directly impacted by it. The immediate benefits that the bill ensures are– liberty to farmers to sell their crops to anyone they want including the APMCs, enabling contract farming, and moving some crops from essential to non-essential list allowing stocking of such crops. Isn’t everything else just speculation about what might go wrong in the future?
If you won’t change the course, the milestones won’t change ever. Farmer suicides, depression in agricultural sector, and farmer migrations to cities are the harsh realities of this country. Even after being the most important contributor in the rebuilding of this nation, because of so many regulations farming remains one of the most unattractive occupation here. The best way to liberate the farmers seems to be opening of market for them like any other sector. No market could proliferate better than the one driven by demands and little regulations.
The talks between the farm unions and the government remained inconclusive yesterday but hopefully the next meeting scheduled on 3rd Dec could fetch some positive results. Nevertheless, holding the national capital to ransom is certainly not the way forward. Also, finding support in the ones who sponsored Shaheen Bagh and have nothing to do with farm reforms should definitely be avoided as their vested interest lies in further fueling this fire rather finding a solution. Now that the farmers have got the attention of the government, its imperative to keep this agitation controlled and peaceful. Last thing anyone in this country wants to see is a farmer bleeding but nothing should come at the cost of law and order.