What Farming Doesn’t Need

Context: Reform for farmers needs to look at more than mere efficiency of agriculture markets.

Problems associated with the new farm laws:

• Threat of domination of private players:  Farmers will have to accept rules framed by private players.
• Mandis will become obsolete: in the medium run.
• Possible exclusions of some farmers: Unlike the mandi system, where poor quality can also be sold, private players may prefer only higher quality standards which leads to exclusion of some produce.
• It may skew agroecological diversity in India: As standardisation and uniform quality of produce by agribusinesses will promote monocultures of a few crops and varieties.
  • Ultra-processed foods created from this narrow product base are also detrimental to human health. 
• Possibilities of aggravation of Climate change: Due to increased emissions from transportation across long national or global supply chains.
• Distorted and manipulative global markets: E.g. Countries like the United States manipulated World Trade Organisation rules to subsidize their farmers to an extent ($46 billion) incomparable in magnitude to India. 

Way forward:

• Change licencing requirements: To have more buyers in the auction in the same mandi. This will promote competitiveness and problems of license raj and oligopolistic structure can be solved.
• Bring institutional market closer to famers: by improving the infrastructure of mandis and rural haats.
• Realise the factors affecting demand and supply: It will not meet on their own to create a common, acceptable (efficient, market-clearing) price.

Conclusion: Government should go beyond reductionist expediency in considering agricultural reforms due to criticality of agriculture on livelihoods, health, food security and vulnerability of Indian farmers.