Articles
Farmers Get the Freedom Industrialists Have
Dt:23/9/20
Farmers Get the Freedom Industrialists Have
Dr T H Chowdary*
Opposition to the latest farmers bill passed (20.09.20) by the Parliament of India by some opposition parties is unjustified and appears to be purely political . They are saying that the farmers may not get the minimum support price (msp) that governments are assuring them when the farm produce is sold in the authorised market yards set up by the state governments. They fear that the private purchasers of the farmers produce may depress the prices, thus distressing the farmers.
2. We have the Food Corporation of India which is a Government of India undertaking. It is the largest purchaser of the farm products, wheat and paddy. It is not wound up. It is in the market. It can compete with the private sector companies buying the farmers produce. It can always offer the minimum economic price determined by governments in lieu of the minimum support price. In fact, it can outbid any private purchaser if the governments are so solicitous of the farmers well being . The FCI can daily display/notify the prices at which it would buy the farmers’ produce just as the poultry farmers’ NECC ( National Egg Co-ordination Council) does daily for poultry products in various cities. The farmers can then make their choice as to whom to sell.
3. Since the 1950s, the greatest champion of Kisans, Prof. Ranga and a little later, Rajaji and the Swatantra party had been demanding that farmers should be free to sell their produce to any body, at any time, at any place. If a maker of soaps or cosmetics or fans or air conditioners or clothes can sell any quantity, anywhere in the county, why could such freedom be not available to the farmer, they asked . Why should the farmer be restricted to sell his produce only at a certain place designated by the government ? When interstate sale /purchase of food grains was not permitted they were getting smuggled . It is ridiculous that when the whole of India is designated as a common market when the GST was introduced, why could not the whole of India become the market for farmers produce ?
4. The restriction that a person seeking to get into the Rajya Sabha must be a resident /registered voter in the state from which he seeks election has been waived by an amendment of the constitution and the election rules. That means citizens are given freedom to fill up a seat in the Rajya Sabha by being a voter from any other state. If politicians can have such freedom which is given to them by amending the constitution, why should not farmers have the freedom to sell their produce anywhere in the country?
5. Food Corporation of India has been the single largest buyer /procurer of food grains, wheat and rice. Since the government under the Food Security Policy has been supplying wheat and rice through the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) either for free or at nominal price, the government as buyer of the food grains through Food Corporation of India has been having an interest to keep the procurement cost as low as possible, because it is distributing them almost for free for about 80 crs of people in the country.
6. The government’s interest was to keep the procurement price as low as possible while at the same time telling the farmers that it is interested in giving them an economic price related to the costs of production. With the passing of the bills which should become laws very soon, farmers will be as free as any producer of other goods and services to sell wherever he has the best bargain, at the time he chooses. If the government is interested in seeing that the farmer gets the proper price, the Food Corporation of India should compete with the private companies for procurement of food grains from the farmers at the highest price that the government thinks is due to the farmers. This my be periodically estimated by the Bureau of Industrial ( and Agricultural) Costs and Prices (BICP) .
7. Government is very frequently raising/ lowering the prices of petrol and diesel oil. So can the Food Corporation change the prices at which it offers to buy wheat and rice /paddy. Finally, if governments want the existing market yards to keeping going, let them do so. They could be another choice for the farmers. Just as one can choose a public sector or private sector bank, so let the farmer have the choice. (754 words)
END