Protecting agri-interests: Freedom for farmers, finally

India is today a leading producer of a variety of agricultural and allied produce and exporter of some of them. It is due to the hard work and efforts of our farmers against odds. They are an epitome of the ‘nishkama karma’ philosophy taught by Krishna to Arjuna amidst the Kurukshetra battle; ‘Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana.’ (Do your duty without seeking returns). They toil day and night; winter or summer; rain or shine, adequate returns or not. But they are not the masters of the price of their toil. As a son of a farmer, I am a witness to the trials and tribulations of the famers in myriad ways.

If any class of economic agents of our country were denied the Constitutional right of freedom of trade, it is the former. Our Constitution provides for reasonable restrictions on every fundamental right. But our farmers have been the victims of the most unreasonable restrictions enforced upon them for decades. They don’t have the freedom of selling their produce even in their neighbourhood.

Remunerative price is still a mirage for them. Their farm incomes are at mercy of markets, middlemen and money lenders. For every rupee a farmer makes, others in the supply chain reap several times. Farmers and consumers are sufferers of the exploitative procurement and marketing of farm produce. Despite increasing public investments in irrigation and other infrastructure, steadily rising institutional credit to farmers and MSP due to the efforts of various governments over the years, the farmer lives under shackles when it comes to selling his produce.

The suffocating and exploitative restrictions on the freedom of marketing of farmers have their roots in the famine of 1943, the subsequent World War-II, the droughts and food shortages of the 60s. The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and the Agriculture Produce Market Committees Acts of the States are the principle sources of the violation of the right of the famers to sell their produce for a price of their choice.

Farmers continue to be the victims of a buyers’ market. This is the principle cause of their helplessness and exploitation all these decades. Renowned agricultural scientist Dr MS Swaminathan has argued for the right of farmers to sell their produce as they deem fit. The country is still far away from ensuring efficient value chains for farm produce for want of required infrastructure like cold storage, stocking facilities and transport of perishable commodities. Often, the farmer is forced to dump his produce on roads or offer to the cattle. Farmers are the cornerstone of food security of our country and they have ensured it by hard work. We’ve come a long way from ‘living from ship to the mouth’ under PL 480 to being the leading producer of farm produce. But they have not got their due in return. All they have been getting were platitudes on ceremonial occasions and in legislatures during customary debates on the plight of the farmers. They were assured of the needful being done to remove the restrictions on freedom of marketing, but it was never fulfilled. But the farmers never took to strike and continued to feed the nation.

Given the economic disparities in the country, interests of the consumers need to be protected. But, should it be at the cost of the producer of the very commodities that the consumers need? For various reasons, a balance in this regard could not be struck, leaving the farmer helpless. The restrictive trade and marketing policies being practiced with respect to agri-prices have resulted in substantial erosion of incomes of farmers. A study on agricultural policies in India by ICRIER-OECD (2018) co-authored by the renowned farm economist Dr Ashok Gulati came out with startling revelations. This study concluded that the restrictions on agri-marketing amounted to ‘implicit taxation’ on farmers to the tune of Rs 45 lakh crore during 2000-01 to 2016-17. This comes to a whopping Rs 2.56 lakh crore per year during this 17-year period of study. No other country does so.

While there were iterations of ‘Kuch karo na’ (do something) for farmers from all and sundry over the years, the first formal actionable announcement on doing away with restrictions on the marketing freedom of farmers finally came during corona times earlier this week. Further to the announcement of a Rs 20 lakh cr stimulus to rev up the economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the details of a package for agriculture and allied sectors was unveiled by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Apart from the about Rs 4 lakh cr support package for farming and allied sectors aimed at improving the required infrastructure and enhancing credit support, the most welcome feature of this package is the firm commitment to rewrite the Essential Commodities Act and the APMC laws. The revision of these restrictive laws is long overdue and would remove the hurdles in farmers getting remunerative price for their produce by giving them more options to sell, denied to them all along.

When this happens, it is a certain second freedom for the farmers who feed the nation against all odds and uncertainties. This long-awaited revision needs to be undertaken with utmost care and responsibility so that no space or scope is left open for farmers to be exploited yet again in some garb or the other. And this rewrite should be done at the earliest. While allowing several buyers to directly access the produce from the farmers, it should be ensured that a strong and effective network of Farm Producers’ Organisations (FPO) are created to enhance the bargaining power of the farmers and not allowing the individual farmers to be exploited.

An effective law on contract farming is also the need of the hour to secure incomes of farmers besides enabling private investments. Dr Ashok Gulati in a recent article termed this announcement as “A 1991 moment for agriculture.” I can’t agree more with him. It is a major reform. Yet another unique feature of this package has been its comprehensiveness towards improving the incomes of farmers through a range of activities.

A study by the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) has revealed that out of the 3,500 farmers’ suicides examined, there was no farmer who had supplementary incomes from dairy or poultry. Huge support to animal husbandry and fisheries in the stimulus package underlines this need for diversifying the income sources of farmers.

I recall that in 1977, the entire country was declared as ‘one food zone’ and it benefitted both the farmers and the consumers. It is time to allow our farmers to sell his producer anywhere for his benefit. All stakeholders should be taken on board while revising restrictive agri-marketing laws for their effective and result oriented execution subsequently in letter and spirit.

During the current corona times, many are working from home. But farmers have no such option as they have to work in their fields only. Despite lockdown, the sowing of wheat, paddy, pulses etc has increased over that of last year. Our farmer, the pride of our country deserves the long-awaited freedom to market his produce at a place of his choice. It should become a reality at the earliest.