What is Farm Bill 2020 & Why Farmers are protesting for it ?

 "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan." We all know that this a very popular slogan. You must have heard it multiple times but how much do we actually value our farmers and our soldiers? You can guess this by the fact that very few of you would already be aware of what I'm going to write about today. I'm sure that most of you would have no idea about the topic. But it isn't your fault- our media deliberately hides such issues under the carpet. Recently, the government has come up with 3 ordinances related to agriculture which has infuriated the farmers of the nation. Especially the farmers of Punjab and Haryana are out on the streets to protest against these ordinances. 

WHY are they protesting ? WHAT changes are suggested by these ordinances and WHY does it concern all of us(the common man)? In this blog, come let us find out about all of this.

Firstly let us know about the Indian Agriculture System and for this we will have to go back in history for a bit- When the country got independence, the whole distribution system of agricultural sector was dominated by the moneylenders and traders in the villages. The farmers has no means to sell their produce directly in the markets. They were dependent on moneylenders and traders that in turn exploited the farmers. So, the farmers were perpetually in debt and had to face a lot of problem- which was not a great system. The government came up with a new way to solve this problem APMC(Agricultural Produce Market Committee).  The government set up special areas in the State and declared them as market areas, these market areas would be subject to the jurisdiction of the market committees. No farmers or trader would be able to sell or buy produce freely in a market area, if a trader has to procure produce form the farmer in a market area, then they would require a license to do so. By this licensing system, the government controlled these traders to some extent. The government also claimed that the farmers would be granted Minimum Support Price in these markets, that is, a minimum price at which the farmers would be able to sell their produce to safeguard them from exploitation. APMC is a huge reason why India's green revolution in the 1960s was a massive success.

Looking quite confusing, let me explain you in simple words. In APMC, a network of regulated mandis was established and they were called APMC mandis. The farmers used to bring their produce to these mandis and then the private trade can come and buy it and if no buyer buys more than that after the private trade has procured some of the produce then the government would step in to procure at what us called the Minimum Support Price (MSP).  So basically, MSP was an incentive for the farmers to remain in cultivation. This was a great deal for the farmers. Now when the recently protesting farmers say "save the mandis", by mandis they mean the APMC- these market areas under it. But over the years, some flaws of the APMC surfaced. The market committee had extraordinary powers to grant license to the trades. The second flaw was that the licensed commission agents that procured produce from the farmers started forming cartels and formulating deals with one another to collectively not buy produce from the farmers at a specified rate and so the farmers would be left with no option. 

Now, let us know about the ordinances brought in by the Modi government. They have claimed that these ordinances would create "one nation, one market" and give farmers the freedom of choice- they can sell their produce wherever they wish to. But I am focusing on the points that is making the farmers angry. These ordinances state that the areas outside these APMCs will have no taxes on sale and purchase. The farmers allege that if the government make sale and purchase outside the mandis more attractive, due to the absence of taxes,  then this would pose a huge disadvantage for the farmers because everything in the APMC mandis is regulated, Transactions are taken into account, there also a Minimum Support Price. But no MSP exists outside these mandis, there is no MSP for the farmers. There is no one to regulate anything and to ensure that the farmers are treated fairly and are not exploited. I believe actually, it is one country, two markets. Because the government has not touched MSP and APMC, but there is a provision that if the traders buy inside APMC, then they will have to pay the mandi tax. But if the private companies buy outside the mandis, then they would not have to pay taxes. So, the traders and the companies would want to buy produce outside, without payment of taxes and gradually, people will move out of the mandis and this will cause the mandis to start becoming redundant. When the mandi system collapses, then obviously, the MSP that was assured to the farmers would also decline gradually. The protesting farmers believe that these ordinances would "corporatize" the agriculture sector of India where big companies would be able to establish their monopolies over the agricultural sector of India and it would become easier to exploit the farmers.