There are divergent views regarding the farm protests. The emotionally charged farmers feel that the new farm laws will allow big corporate houses to manipulate the farm sector to serve their purpose and profitability. While the government is saying that the new farm laws will ‘de-stagnate’ the growth of agriculture sector, prevent wastage of food grains and lend to development of agro related infrastructure, like wharehouses, cold chains, etc in the country.
My take on the subject is as follows:
Individual land holding have become very small (nearly 85% of farmers hold less than 5 acres of land). Considering the input costs, farming as a profession has become unviable. ‘The pomp and show displayed by Punjabis is because of money coming from overseas and definitely not because of farm income.’
I believe that the larger aim of the government is:
Firstly, to consolidate these small holdings (over a period of time…. the new laws are the first step towards it) by leasing out large chunks of agriculture land to corporate houses. The resources available with these big companies will promote economy of effort and enhance the profitability to provide a fillip to the growth of agro sector.
Secondly, the manpower released from the farming sector will be forced to move away from this sector and provide cheap labour force in urban centres.
The abrupt implementation of the above two points is bound to create hurt and heart-burns, because the farmers are very much attached to their land and most importantly, they know no other skill to make themselves useful and earn a livelihood.
Also, the available infrastructure of our urban centres will get clogged if it receives such mass migration of unskilled migrants. Besides, it may result in adverse law and order conditions in cities.
An alternative to the above said government approach could be as follows:
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Promote corporative farming by creating farm bodies at village/ block levels.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Link these Corporatives with crop related agri-industries that could come up in their vicinity.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Procurement by the industry can be done directly to eliminate any middleman.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Government Cess (about 2-3%) could be collected from the procurement agencies (industry) to be used transparently and judiciously for infrastructure development of the state.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Concurrently, skill development of the surplus manpower for employment in these industries will result in generating employment, decongestion of big cities and holistic development of infrastructure all across the country rather than being centered around a few cities.
Lastly, I strongly support the farmer community and feel that addressing their genuine concerns should be at the heart of any decision taken by the government.
You could also go through my previous blog on the subject:Â https://www.olivegreens.co.in/easyblog/noise-over-farm-bills-explained