Deregulating agricultural items including cereals, onions and potatoes and lifting the stock limit may seem promising to farmers and the choice of selling their produce at attractive prices instead of limiting it to the market committees might look encouraging but farmers’ organisations are treading with caution around the Centre’s announcements, maintaining it might be too early to “celebrate”.
Though these seem attractive on the one hand, the announcements seem to favour the “moneyed class” on the other. “The manner in which these will ultimately unfold on the ground will decide our fate. We are still awaiting the details of the announcements,” says Rattan Mann, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union.
However, he says that the amendment of the Essential Commodities Act, a demand repeatedly raised by farmers organisations, as also the “opening” of the mandis by providing barrier-free inter-state trade, will benefit them.
“This means that we are free to sell our produce in any market and we can decide the pricing. It means more power in our hands though clarity will come only when the details will be made available,” Mann said.
His faction of the BKU has even scheduled a farmers’ panchayat in Panipat tomorrow. This will be attended by two farmers’ representatives each from all the districts and deliberating on the announcements will be the highlight of the event.
However, the parallel BKU unit under Gurnam Singh Charuni is sceptical about the announcements from the word go. “Doing away with the limit on stock-holding will mean that the hoarders will benefit. The farmer will be at the mercy of the ‘capitalists’ who will control the market, buy the produce, wait for the price to escalate and then, bring it to the market. We will be destroyed since this is only a new business model,” he rued.
Charuni is of the opinion that the government is pushing the cause of private players by allowing them entry in the name of permitting farmers to sell their produce out the Agricultural Produce Market Committees.
“This amounts to creating space for these players and gradually withdrawing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on produce. It means that the private player will take produce-delivery at his doorstep, increase the burden on the farmer and minimise the role of the government, exposing the farmers to the battles of demand and supply in the open market,” he maintained, adding that the details of the announcements will “expose” the government and its design to “sneak in” privatisation in the garb of relief due to the pandemic.
While they await details, they maintain that strengthening of farm-gate infrastructure like cold chains and storage places, loan-related relief could benefit the farmer in the long run.
This news has not been edited by Apni Kheti staff but has been published by various news feeds
Source: The Tribune