There is anger and uneasiness among the farmers from the three agricultural laws

• Bhupinder Singh Hooda

From all over the country, peasants are protesting; rising above the distinctions of caste, religion and regionalism. Every farmer of the country today is involved in it and is worried. The nationwide shutdown conducted by them was a complete success and they got support from transport, petrol pumps and all other trade unions. This means that if the farmer is not happy today, then no one will be happy. If the farmer is happy then everyone will be happy. Whether it is a small shopkeeper, a trader, a transporter or an operator, everyone’s economy is associated with the farmer because our country is an agricultural country. Some people are thinking like America that there is no MSP in America, then there should be no MSP in our country, whereas the policy of America is different. There, everyone runs on only one policy, either make it big or leave it, it is not possible in India. Because agriculture gives more than 50 percent employment in the country. No such heavy employment can be found in any other sector.

There is anger and uneasiness among the farmers from the three agricultural laws the government has brought because the three laws are related to each other and are not in the interest of the farmers. These laws are anti-farmer. If you have read, on 14 August I wrote an article in the newspaper the ‘Tribune’ and in that I have explained very well what the meaning of these three laws is? First let me take the example of Haryana - Punjab, there was only one market –the APMC market. Now two markets have been formed from them. An APMC’s yard, its market and the outside which is the second market. That means there have been two markets. This means that in APMC, the government has also said that we will implement and keep the MSP. APMC will be taxed, market fees will be levied and MSP will also be applicable. The MSP will also be given by the government, but which is outside this market, which is free, no MSP will be applicable to it. There has been kept no limit on hoarding even in the third law of essentials which this government has made. There are such things as potatoes, onions, which affect the common man, the poor man as well. So, it will be a loss to the farmers that whenever the crop will be produced, it will be sold at cheaper prices at that time. There is no question of getting MSP, farmers will be excluded from MSP and farmers will do contract farming or sell in the open market. If the crop is sold above the MSP, it is fine, but it will not be so. There will be corporate hoarding. Big corporates will hoard in extreme quantities and will keep raising their prices by capturing demand and supply. I want to give you an example based on a slip that I have.

The highest number of potatoes are produced in the Pipli of Haryana. Once I had gone there, a farmer came to me and, almost crying, gave me a receipt and told that he has come by selling 9 paise a kg of potatoes. What happens in the market after that? It is sold in the market at a price of 50 to 60 rupees. I believe that this is the best time for the government to take any action. All farmers will be affected by this. The government says that it has brought agricultural improvement. I agree that some reforms are needed, but there is no scope for improvement in these laws passed by the present government. They should withdraw these laws and call the session of Parliament to discuss how to improve agriculture. If this happens, it will be in the interest of the farmers and the farmers will welcome it.

Now I want to tell you about contract farming that in Haryana it has been in force since 9 August, 2007 and this notification was issued by the Central Government and not the Haryana Government. We made a basic rule for contract farming - Rule (6). It is now in force throughout Haryana and the entire state is protected by APSMC law. For this, the amendment we made in Rule 6 - (6) It contained the details that this contract will be signed in front of the Enforcement Officer and after that this document will also be registered. The Enforcement Officer means the officer of the marketing board appointed for this task. The rate paid for the agreement by both parties shall not be less than the minimum support price fixed for that year.

If the minimum support price is not set for a particular crop, then in that case the heritage amount of 15 percent of the current price of the crop in the market will be deposited in the account of the farmer. This heritage amount shall be issued to the farmer within 30 days of the agreement between the two sides. This meant that no buyer would be able to trick the farmer nor compromise on the price below the MSP. Now there is no such protection to the farmers in the new proposal which has come by the Central Government. In the article I wrote on August 14, it was said that these laws should have been brought as an amendment and a fourth law should have been added to it that a shopper who purchased at less than the minimum support price would be entitled to a band (Shutdown).We also kept a heritage amount in 2007 which nobody could do at that time. And now the people of this government are saying that there is no discussion about the APMC in the declaration letter of the Congress, which is completely wrong. You come to Haryana and see. We have introduced nearby farmers to the farmers’ market, so that the expenses of the farmers can be reduced. If you go to my village, even though it has a population of 10,000, but there is an APMC based procurement centre. Therefore, we have set up a procurement centre every 8 to 10 kilometres so that all the nearby farmers can join the APMC. Our goal was clear and that is the solution to this problem.

BJP people in Bihar say that we take 6 per cent MSP i.e. profits. This is more in Punjab and Haryana as Bihar does not have an APMC based market. I have transformed all the mandis which were here during my reign into big mandis of APMC. To do this, we had made small booths, whose job was to buy produce from the farmers, that is, the farmers came to the booth with their produce and sold it to go back. Farmers can be helped only in this way. This is my report.

I was the chairman of the Agricultural Production Working Group and its members were the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal. Now the BJP people say that nothing has been done in the agricultural sector. So, I want to tell them that the suggestions given by me were implemented as flow of agricultural credit. The flow of agricultural credit even within the states has not been uniform, even within developed states, there is a difference in the flow of credit to developed districts and districts closer to urban centres as compared to developed districts. Sustainable development in states is a priority area for equal flow of credit. The loan should be made available at an interest rate of more than 4 per cent per annum. Did you see what was happening in Haryana? The interest rate of the short-term loan that farmers received was earlier 12 percent, we reduced it to 9 percent and finally to 7 percent. When I became the chairman of this group, I proposed that interest on short-term loans should not be charged more than 4 percent anywhere in India. It was accepted and implemented as well. Banks will not be charged any additional fee whether it is a cooperative bank, a private sector bank or a nationalized bank. Banks cannot charge more than 4 per cent to the farmer who will repay his loan on time and when this decision was taken, I went a step further. Today, the interest rate on crop loans in Haryana is zero. If a farmer pays his loan on time, then he does not have to pay any kind of interest on it. The burden is borne by the Haryana government. Similarly, the recommendation that we have made is, what should be the minimum support price?

My Working Group recommended at that time that ‘The Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices (CACP) methodology’ of calculating costs of cultivation must be reviewed in the context of need to provide economic and remunerative prices to the farmers. The Working Group supports the National Commission on Farmers’ report suggesting 50% higher price over the actual cost of cultivation or on the lines of Bureau of Industrial Cost and Prices (BICP) formula used for estimating industrial costs. What is the difference now you see. They say we are implementing Swaminathan recommendation, they are calculating MSP on A2+FL formula, but, our recommendation was on C2 formula of Swaminathan. Suppose today the MSP of wheat is 1800 rupees per quintal, if you calculate it on this C2 Formula, it will come out to be round about 2,800 or between 2,800 & 3,000. So that is their second demand, but now Government should immediately suspend these acts, withdraw these acts. If they want some reforms, they should call Parliament, discuss it and then implement it. Even this report, if you read this report, I called all farmers’ organizations of the country, different stake holders. While passing these acts, nobody was consulted, during Corona period it was passed in Parliament without discussion, stake holders were not taken into confidence. So, this is the time, they should withdraw these acts and come up with some reforms after discussion and stake holders should be consulted.

My Working Group recommended at that time, The Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices (CACP) methodology of calculating costs of cultivation must be reviewed in the context of need to provide economic and remunerative prices to the farmers. The Working Group supports the National Commission on Farmers’ report suggesting 50% higher price over the actual cost of cultivation or on the lines of Bureau of Industrial Cost and Prices (BICP) formula used for estimating industrial costs. What is the difference now you see they are saying MSP today also. They say we are implementing Swaminathan recommendation, they are calculating MSP on A2+ FL formula, but, our recommendation was on C2 formula of Swaminathan, if you calculate it on this C2 Formula, it will come out to be round about 2,800 or between 2,800 & 3,000. So that is their second demand, but, now Government should immediately suspend these acts, withdraw these acts. If they want some reforms, they should call Parliament, discuss it and then implement it. Even this report, if you read this report I called all farmers organizations of the country, different stake holders. While passing these acts, nobody was consulted, during Corona period it was passed in Parliament without discussion, stake holders were not taken into confidence. So, this is the time, they should withdraw these acts and come up with some reforms after discussion and stake holders should be consulted.

Article based on 08 December, 2020 Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda press briefing