On September 10, over 170 kilometres from the national capital, New Delhi, thousands of farmers from across Haryana gathered at Pipli village, Kurukshetra as part of the Kisan Bachao Mandi Bachao rally. These farmers marched towards the grain market to protest against the three recent central government ordinances pertaining to agriculture, which they felt were not in the interest of the farming community.  

As the  farmers from across the state began streaming towards the grain market, many were prevented by the police who had put up barricades. Section 144, a criminal procedure code that prohibits assembly of four or more people in an area, was imposed, but that failed to stop the farmers’ protest leading to arrest of a number of them, including independent MLA Balraj Kundu. Clashes erupted and the police resorted to a lathi charge in which several farmers sustained injuries. 

“The use of brutal force upon any of us will not be tolerated,” Sardar VM Singh, farmer leader and convener of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sangharsh Morcha Samanvaya Samiti, told Gaon Connection. A similar tractor rally was organised on July 20 at Kaithal Mandi near Panipat where farmers from Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana had gathered to protest the three ordinances. 

These ordinances include the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020; and the  Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020.  

Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, Haryana’s president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, described these ordinances as ‘anti-farmers and anti-mandi’. 

Promotes hoarding, does not not curb it, say farmers

The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020  was branded as unfair and anti-farmer by the protestors. This Act was passed to curb hoarding and blackmarketing by traders who were prohibited from storing agricultural products like potato, onion, pulses, oilseeds and oil, for more than a specified limit of time. However, the new ordinance has revoked that clause. 

“This ordinance will facilitate big companies to store agricultural products in their large warehouses and later sell them to customers at high prices,” Abhimanyu Kohar, activist and national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Mahasangh pointed out to Gaon Connection. “It is to be kept in mind that there are 85 per cent small farmers in our country who do not have facilities to store their produce for long,” he added. 

Contract farming – fair or foul? 

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, was promulgated on June 5 this year, purportedly to help farmers make profits by handing over their risk to corporate buyers.  

“This new ordinance will make the farmer a labourer on his own land,” protested Kohar.  “The central government wants to impose the western model of agriculture. But it forgets that our farmers cannot be compared with those abroad because we have a different land-population ratio from theirs.  Farming is a way of life with us whereas it is only a business activity in the western countries,” he pointed out to Gaon Connection.

Sanjay Agarwal, union agriculture secretary, Agricultural Produce, Commerce and Trade (Promotion & Facilitation), had said that commercial farming agreements were the need of the day. He claimed it would help small and marginal farmers, who wanted to grow high value crops like cotton, basmati rice and moong. The ordinance would allow the farmers to make profits by passing on the risk to corporate buyers, was his assurance. 

But, Kohar disagreed. “There are precedents to show that contract farming exploits farmers. Last year, PepsiCo company in Gujarat sued the farmers for several crores, but had to retract after there was a huge outcry,” he reminded Gaon Connection.  The companies had agreed to buy the potato crop of farmers at a certain price, but when the crop was ready, they delayed transactions so much that the produce was spoilt and the companies promptly rejected it, he said. 

Fighting for a fair price

The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, passed in June earlier this year was the third ordinance to come under fire. The ordinance was to create additional trading opportunities outside the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) market yard so that farmers get remunerative prices.  But the farmers view it with suspicion, as it will allow anyone to purchase and sell agricultural produce. They feel this will harm the farmers and benefit the corporates and middlemen.

Defending the ordinance, the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar had clarified that the APMC Act had not been amended but a new act had been brought in. He added that the state APMC law would prevail, but it would be restricted to the mandis. Farmers will no longer be obliged to sell their produce through the APMC. 

“The government’s decision will bring an end to the mandi system,” protested Rahul Raj, state president of Rashtriya Kisan Majdoor Sangathan, Madhya Pradesh, to Gaon Connection.  “The Ordinance talks about ‘one nation, one market’ but actually, the government is seeking to break the monopoly of APMC. If APMC is eliminated, the traders will increase arbitrariness and the farmers will not get a fair price for their produce,” he argued.

Despite assurances from the central government that the ordinances were to provide a free market for farmers and benefit them, farmers are far from convinced. They give the example of how similar laws had not helped the farmers in the US and Europe. “Prior to the free market-based policy being implemented in the US and Europe in 1970, forty per cent  of the retail price was received by the farmers whereas after the free market policy, they are getting only 15 per cent. Meanwhile, it is only the companies and super markets that have benefited,” pointed out Kohar. 

“Despite having a free market policy, farmers in Europe get government grants equivalent to about seven lakh crore rupees annually as support. The experience of the US and Europe farming shows that free market policies do harm the farmers,” Kohar concluded.