Himanshu Mishra, New Delhi
Updated Mon, 07 Dec 2020 07:08 AM IST
Farmers perform on NH 9
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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Sources in the government also say that if the MSP’s legal guarantee is announced, the tone of the demand for withdrawal of all three laws may slow down as the government is already ready to amend many provisions of these laws. For example, the government is ready to knock the doors of the court directly to the farmers, change the new pollution law related to the NSR sector, make registration mandatory for private buyers and make necessary changes in the provisions to protect the interests of small farmers.
Mathapchi before sixth round
After the fifth round of meeting is inconclusive, the government continues to crack the agitation. The main concern is about MSP. There have been several rounds of talks between top officials of the Agriculture Ministry since Saturday night. Before final decision on this, the government also wants to weigh their stamina through Bharat Bandh called by the farmers organizations on 8 December.
Also a difficult
Since independence, governments have failed to establish a direct link between the farmer and the customers. Due to this, the customers had to pay a higher price, but only a small part of the amount paid by the customer reached the farmers’ pockets. For example, customers have often paid four to five times the price sold by the farmer. The profits of the agricultural sector continued to be borne by middlemen. Despite more than seven decades of independence, governments have failed to increase farmers’ income.
There is confusion about this
The government aims to increase private participation in agriculture. The government will make MSP legal, but will not be able to force the private sector to buy. In such a situation, private sector will not buy if the demand for the crop decreases.
– Government can make purchases under MSP up to a limit. The government, on an average, purchases only six per cent of the total yield. It can be increased to ten per cent as per the current capacity. There are many reasons, including storage capacity, burden on the economy, due to which the government cannot buy large quantities of food grains.
– Once there is high yield of any crop, its demand will decrease. The government will not buy more than a crop. After this, private sector will not join the procurement process if procurement is lower than MSP. In such a situation, what will the farmer do for those crops?
– The big question is also the price fixing. Crops that fall under the MSP have different quality. According to the quality, different MSPs will have to be decided, setting different standards of a crop. What will happen to crops that do not meet the standards? Government sources consider this a very complex process.
– The government says that through the three laws, it was trying to compete in agriculture. Private sector will develop such crops with their understanding, which will be more likely to demand in future. But making the MSP legal will not serve the purpose of the new laws.
– Government does not want to impose conditions on private sector for competition. Sources in the government say that anyway the agricultural sector is not a priority area of attraction for the private sector. The imposition of conditions will not attract the private sector to the agricultural sector.
– The provision of MSP was made to protect farmers in a way. For example, the MSP process was adopted to protect farmers from losses due to large differences in demand and supply. On the other hand, private sector business operates on the basis of demand and supply. In this, the demand for the crops will be more than the MSP.
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