Glaring Flaws in Farm Laws

Context: Agricultural reforms ought to deal with making small-scale farming economically and ecologically sustainable.

Factors strengthening the farmers' protest:

• Ensuring mass education of farmers: For e.g. Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee in Amritsar has circulated one lakh copies of farm laws in regional language.
• Multiple forms of mass media: have enabled the farmer community to differentiate between truth and falsehood presented as truth.

Major Flaws in Farm Laws:

• Provision of remunerative price negates the MSP: an agri-business entity agreeing to a ‘remunerative price’ with a farmer, will not allow farmers to sell his/her crop under the MSP in the APMC market.
• Lowers bargaining power of farmers: No farmer, big or small, will be in a position to match the legal resources of agro-business entities.
  • As per Agriculture census of 2015-16- 86%, farmers are marginal and small and the remaining 14% are semi-medium (2-4 hectares), medium (4-10 hectares).
  • Threat of penalty on farmers: (ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 10 lakh) for contravention of contract under Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act.

Conclusion: The democratic model of governance requires that the Central government should either issue an ordinance repealing these laws or convene a session of Parliament straight away for the purpose.