How we can ease the implementation of our farm laws

Context: In the context of ongoing farmers protest, the government should provide legislative clarity on various contentious issues and publish a few model farms contracts to show the farmers advantages of these reforms.

Agricultural reforms in India

• Historical background: Land reforms and the Green Revolution were few significant agri-reforms of the first few decades after independence.
• New farms Acts: three Acts were enacted by the parliament.

1. 1. The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (or Produce Act):
      • Allows farmers and traders to engage in both intra- and inter-state trade.
      • Allows persons to establish and operate an electronic trading and transaction platform—to facilitate intra- and inter-state trade.
   2. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance;
   3. The Farm Services Act, 2020 (or Agreement Act): Provides for contract farming, based on negotiated agreements between farmers and sponsors.
      • Types of farming agreements include –
        • One where the ownership (and consequently risk) of the farm output rests with the farmer, and the sponsor makes a purchase in accordance with the agreement.
        • The other where, the farmer is paid for his farming services, but the production and its risks are the sponsor's responsibility.
      • It also allows for a farming agreement to be linked with insurance or credit instruments.

Way Forward for the Acts

• Changes in the Produce Acts:
  • Legislative clarity needed: Provide more detailed modalities for such trade. This would be a welcome move from a governance and compliance perspective.
  • Involving a private sector technology expert: Technical expertise from the private sector could help as it is analogous to e-commerce market models.
  • Legislative clarity needed: Strictly defining the definition of a trader to eliminate the possibility of misuse of the Law. (The term "person" itself includes an individual as well)
• Changes in the Agreement Act:
  • Involving private players:
    • Provisions of neutral third-party inspection for quality, grade and standards: can be undertaken by private players.
    • Private players like private-sector insurers, agricultural-credit companies or non-banking finance companies can be roped in for providing insurance.
    • Additional third-party aggregator: could work either at the farmers' end or the sponsors' end. (e.g. an agri-tech company or expert private sector player).
  • Provide model formats for farming agreements: would go a long way in generating awareness of the changes.
• Provide protection from prosecution: Redressal of grievances through judiciary should be ensured, especially for the farmers:
  • Presently, the farm sector acts contain a provision for protection from prosecution, which extends to not just governments or its officers, but also to "any other person".

Conclusion: Sufficient thought needs to be applied to the finer details of implementation, especially the rules and guidelines that would govern the same. This is too important a sector for loose ends.