One Law Can’t Fit All

Context: Farm laws must reflect regional and crop diversities

Issues with farm laws:

• Non-workability of one-size-fits-all prescription: in a continental country like India.
• Issue with the push for diversification: Not all regions must diversify. (it’s like telling Gujarat and Maharashtra to stop producing cotton due to low rainfall)  
  • E.g. if Punjab has great alluvial soil, good irrigation and a tradition of the application of science to agriculture.
• Ignored the importance of Arhtiyas in the Northern regions: They function simply as agents of the procurement agencies and not as middlemen.
• Structural issues ignored:
  • Low APMC presence: We have the largest spread of agricultural markets in the world according to spatial maps. But they are not APMCs.
  • Weak markets and processing industries: makes the farmer at the mercy of the trader. Minimum Support Price (MSP) in areas other than North is like ghost money.

Conclusion: Good laws are good because progress starts with them. But not all laws are good everywhere.