“Kisan Bill 2020”
“Three ordinances promulgated by the Centre”
Introduction
The Indian Government introduced three farm bills that were passed by the Lok Sabha on September 17,2020 after the Monsoon Session of Parliament began amidst the pandemic and coronavirus. SAD pioneer, Sukhbir Badal declared in Lok Sabha that Harsimrat Badal, the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries from his party, will leave in dissent over these farm bills.
What is a Farm Bill?
The farm bill is a bundle of enactment passed roughly once every five years, which encompasses a colossal effect on cultivating jobs, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are grown. Covering programs extending from crop protections for agriculturists to healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning rancher training to support for economical cultivating practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems.
Kisan Bill 2020
The three Kisan Bill passed are as follows:-
- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm
- Services Ordinance, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.
The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinances, 2020
The Provisions
- To form an environment where ranchers and traders appreciate the flexibility to offer and buy farm produce outside enrolled ‘mandis’ understates’ APMCs.
- To promote the barrier-free inter-state and intra-state exchange of farmers’ produce.
- To diminish marketing/transportation costs and offer assistance to farmers in getting better prices.
- To provide a facilitative system for electronic trading.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm
The Provisions
- Farmers can enter into a contract with agricultural business firms, wholesalers, exporters, and processors, or other large retailers for the sale of production at a pre-agreed price.
- Farmers, small and marginal, having less than five hectares can gain through aggregation and contract. (Marginal farmers account for 86% of the total farmers in India.)
- To shift the risk of market unpredictability from ranchers to sponsors.
- Allow farmers to have accessibility to upgraded modern techniques and better inputs.
- To boost the income of farmers and reduce the cost of marketing.
- Farmers can now engage in direct marketing by eliminating intermediaries for full payment realization.
- An effective mechanism for dispute resolution with redressal timeliness.
Services Ordinance, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020
The Provisions
- To remove commodities like pulses, cereals, onion, oilseeds, and potatoes from the list of essential commodities. It will do away with the imposition of limits for stockholding on such items except under “extraordinary circumstances” like war.
- Private sectors and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will be attracted by this provision as it will remove the fears of private investors of excessive regulatory interference in business administrations and operations.
- Bringing investment for the infrastructure of farms like cold storages, and modernizing the supply chain of food.
- By bringing price stability, helping both farmers and consumers.
- Cutting wastage of farm produce and creating a competitive market environment.
Kisan Bill Advantages
- Minister of Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar said that these farm bills will accomplish the country’s desires and needs for agriculture.
- The farmer will be attracted to relatively good crops, and his income will naturally increase ifthe rancher develops expensive crops, and he will too bolster agrarian growth.
- “These farm bills would also offer assistance to export agribusiness,” Tomar said that small agriculturists are approximately 86 percent. “When these agriculturists manage to know in advance the fixed cost of their produce by a few enactments they can do profit farming.”
- The Minimum Support Price (MSP) will not be affected by these farms bills and this will offer assistance to make agriculturists more advanced.
- Through these changes, agriculturists will directly interface with the major traders and exporters, adding an advantage to farming. “Those bills would bring revolutionary enhancements to farmers’ lives.”
- Through the farm bill, the Minister of Agriculture aims to supply a national structure for agrarian assertions that will secure and empower agriculturists to engage with agri-business companies, processors, wholesalers, exporters, or major retailers.
- The farm bill would bring freedom to the agricultural sector. These bills have no impact on the State APMC Act. “APMC will be within the state, but beyond its periphery, there will be an inter-state exchange, and ranchers will be able to offer their products from their field, home, and elsewhere after the law comes into being.”
Kisan Bill Andolan
The Indian Government had claimed that these acts will transform Indian agriculture and will attract private investment. But these protests amid by farmers’ organizations across the country is against these ordinances due to the following reasons:-
- The dissenting farmers fear that effective investors would tie them to ominous contracts drafted by huge corporate law firms, with liability clauses that would be beyond the understanding of destitute farmers in most cases.
- Big companies will have the freedom to stock commodities which implies that they will dictate terms to farmers which will lead to less prices for the cultivators.
- Recent decisions on the export ban on onions create double on its implementation.
- The ranchers say that they are uncertain about getting Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their products and additionally concerned about the upper hand of the agri-businesses and huge retailers in negotiations.
- It will reduce the benefits for small farmers as companies will dictate the price.
- Moreover, they feared that the engagements of sponsors with them are likely to get reduced.
Conclusion
The farmers are the soul of the country and their development and upliftment are the first obligation to be taken care of by the Indian Government. The passing of the farm bills is a step in the right direction giving a greater platform to the ranchers to induce the desired cost of their agricultural item.
The Centre adopted these ordinances to help farmers in realizing a better price for their crops. Hence, this is very forward-looking legislation which is a win-win situation for all the farmers, entrepreneurs, and consumers.