govinfoadmin
On September 20, 2020, Agriculture Bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha. Amidst the strong disagreement from the opposition parties, 3 bills namely – Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance. These bills are mainly for reforms in the farm sector. It mainly aims at benefiting the farmers and making them self-reliant. The bill faced a huge disagreement in the house from the opposition as well as from some farmers majorly in Haryana and Punjab.
Scheme Overview:
| Bill name: | Agriculture Bills –
|
| Bills Passed Under: | Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha |
| Beneficiaries: | Farmers across India |
| Major Objective: | To bring reforms in the farm/ agricultural sector as well as to benefit the farmers thereby making them self-reliant |
Objectives and Benefits:
- The main objective of the bills is to benefit the farmers across India
- It aims at making the farmers self-reliant and free from the APMC mandis barrier
- It will allow the farmers to choose where to sell at the APMC mandis or somewhere else.
- Thus, it will broaden the choices available to the farmers to sell their produce
- The farmers will also get a chance to get into agreements with companies/ agriculture business firms/ large retailers as per their choice
- This will be on pre decided price terms to ensure higher returns and income
- These bills when further converted into actual laws, aims to benefit the farmers thereby increasing the choices and income of the farmer
- It aims to build a strong platform for farmers to reach the national and global markets
- It will benefit the small farmers to improve and sell their produce and thereby get a platform to boost the overall productivity
Bill Details:
- 3 Agriculture bills passed in the parliament house are – Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.
Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:
- It allows the farmers to sell their farm produce a per their choice.
- The farmers under this may sell their produce In the APMC mandis or anywhere else as they want or as per the better deal
- This gives a sense of freedom to the farmers to choose where to sell their produce
- It does not aim to shut down the APMC mandis, rather it just aims to broaden the choices and options available to the farmers
- It completely empowers the farmer to decide whether to sell in or outside the mandis
- It will help the farmers to get better prices for their produce and increase their income as well as cost cutting benefits incurred for transportation otherwise
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
- It allows the farmers to enter into agreements freely as per his own decision
- Under this the farmer can get into an agreement with companies/ agriculture business firms/ large retailers
- This agreement will be only in written format
- By signing and entering into this agreement the farmer will then produce the required items as per the other party of contract against high returns as pre decided
- This enable the farmers to get into contract farming in case they wish to
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance:
- It aims to reduce the stock holding limits on various items and there will be no claim of illegal hoarding thereby
- It seeks to remove cereals, pulses, oil seeds, oils, onions and potatoes from the list of essential commodities
- It aims to attract Foreign Direct Investment too
Agreement and Disagreement over the Bills:
- Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), YSRCP and Janata Dal (united) were the parties in agreement of the bills. These parties are of opinion that these bills are essentially for the development of the farmers and are required for the reforms in the agriculture sector
- On the other hand, parties namely Congress, SAD, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, AIADMK, Aam Aadmi Party were in disagreement of passing the bills. Some called the bills anti farmer, while some mentioned corporatisation of the agricultural sector
- Congress party had the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers while selling outside the mandis and called the bills as black laws. However, PM Modi tweeted in the same context thereby clearing that MSP will remain intact irrespective of farmers selling the produce in the mandis or outside the mandis
- SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal quitted the cabinet thereby showing her disagreement over the bills
- Some party members were of opinion for more discussion over the bill in a separate session
- There was a havoc created in the parliament house while passing the bills from the opposition parties thereby breaching the democracy and basic rules of the parliament house
- Farmers in some states like Haryana and Punjab also protested against the bills concerning over the Minimum Support Price and the prices while entering into contracts with big companies and retailers
- Government claims to sectoral reforms and increased farmer income with the introduction of these bills. It aims to double the farmer income by 2021
- PM Narendra Modi tweeted in support of passing of the bills and condemned the havoc in the parliament house while passing the bills
- Bills were passed in a legal way of voting, majority votes from the members were received in support/ agreement of the bill
- However, the success of these bills will solely depend on actual implementation of the framed bills.
