04/12/2020 - Agriculture

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KEY POINTS

·        Essentially changing the rules around sale, storage and pricing of farm produce, the bills will permit private buyers to hoard essential commodities for future sales, which only government-authorised agents could do earlier, along with changing the rules for contract farming.

·        Without some support from the state, the smallest of Indian peasants would be even more vulnerable. According to provisional numbers from the 10th Agriculture Census 2015–2016, in India, “smallholder and marginal farmers” (those with less than two hectares of land) account for 86.2 per cent of all cultivators — that is, almost 126 million people.

·        For them, it is inconceivable to carry their produce to other states or far-off places to sell. They will not easily resist the deals “proposed” by agribusiness firms. Should they disappear in the name of the modernisation of agriculture, which means concentration of land and mechanisation?

·        But the share of the secondary sector in total employment has been stagnant at around 26 per cent (as against 41 per cent for agriculture) and its share in the GDP is declining.

·        The tertiary sector has not been able to create enough jobs either and most migrant labourers in cities live in precarious circumstances, as the reverse migration due to the COVID-19 lockdown clearly demonstrated.

·        Already, the gap between urban and rural India in terms of per capita resources is widening. It would be far more prudent to increase public investment in agriculture in terms of infrastructure and in the form of income support schemes like the Rythu Bandhu in Telangana or the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation in Odisha. This, coupled with ensuring that no transaction can be done below the MSP, would help alleviate some rural distress.

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