Reasons for Farmers’ protest on new farm laws

Several thousands of farmers are protesting against the new farm laws. They even called for Bharat Bandh. While the Centre says that these new Agri reforms help farmers benefit in many ways, farmers fear that the Bills will cause loss to them.

The statements of the government and farmers are contradictory. In this situation, it is quite apt to know what the government is saying and why the farmers are protesting.

Here are the reasons for the protests of farmers on Farm Laws:

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 helps farmers sell their products to cold storages, warehouses, and processing plants. They can even sell their crops to end consumers. State governments are not allowed to levy fees or cess on them to sell in these market places. This Bill also facilitates contract farming. It created doubt among farmers that the government will be doing away from the procurement of harvest and the MSP in future.

Farmers mainly from Punjab, Haryana, and UP are protesting against these Bills. The government procures the harvest of the farmers by offering a minimum support price (MSP). Though the government sets an MSP for 23 crops, it mainly buys rice and wheat. Punjab and Haryana are major producers of rice. Since MSP is assured for rice, many farmers in UP are also growing the crop. As it needs more water, it led to groundwater depletion and soil quality damage.

At the same time, the government procures excess quantities of rice and wheat due to the MSP policy. Earlier, NITI Aayog pointed out saying that the government can’t buy every commodity in all markets across the country. It created a doubt in the farmers that the government would do away with MSP in future.

Besides, these Farm Bills are primarily encouraging contract farming. Farmers need to enter an agreement with buyers like corporates. Farmers fear that corporates will exploit them on price, which may lead to the forcible sale of the crop at lower prices. For all these reasons, farmers are protesting.

Photo by cmmacc from Pxhere (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Reference: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1593885