It is surprising for many that ‘Kisan’ (the Farmer) is at the center of political debate and legislative action but for an election season. Generally, farmers in India are at the center of debate during Lok Sabha elections, as every political party has to make assurances in their manifestos for the farmers. Mostly these promises relate to ‘waiver of debt’ (karz mafi’), easy credit or some financial allowances. No one thinks to empower the farmer as a businessman himself to negotiate and be part of the competitive market regarding his produce. NITI Aayog in it policy paper in March 2017 proposed strategy and action plan for ‘doubling farmers’ income’. The present debate is going around the three legislations (Farm Bills) passed by the Parliament in a stormy monsoon session. While the proposal is awaiting final signatures of the Hon’ble President of India to become law with effect from 5th June 2020 (date on which the Ordinance was brought), let us have a look at the main features of the following legislation from competition perspective.
• The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 (Freedom of Choice to Sell Farmers’ Produce)
• The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 (Framework for farming agreements)
• Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 (decontrolling supply of farm produce) An analysis of the aforesaid three Bills from the competition reforms perspective is a welcome step for the following reasons:
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
One of the greatest problems which have been highlighted across the governments in the past years was that of Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) and its higher commission rates and exploitation of poor farmers. As the state APMC laws had restrictions, Competition Commission of India (CCI) had on several occasions said that “APMC laws and the pricing policy needs to be reviewed to remove competitive bottlenecks for the benefit of the farmers”. The new law takes away the exclusive rights of the APMC to trade in agricultural produce in an area. A farmer is free to choose competitive alternative trading channels for price discovery. While a trader would require mandatory PAN card, the farmer producer organizations or agricultural cooperative society are exempted. The freedom extends to the interstate as well as intra-state trade of farmer’s produce. No market fee by any name whatsoever can be charged under any state APMC Laws.
Timely Payment to Farmer:
Law requires the farmer to be given a receipt on the same day as an evidence of the trade and payment not later than 3 working days of the trade.
Electronic Trading and Transaction Platform: Any person other than an individual may establish the ETTP for facilitating inter-State or intra-State trade and commerce of scheduled farmers’ produce in a trade area. This would be greatly helpful to the farmer to sell their produce online. This would be another open market, where competitors of ETTP would ensure advocacy, quality, and efficiency of their platforms. Though a government portal e-NAM exists, regulated privatization in this space would bring healthy competition. This is also forwardlooking keeping in view the focus on dynamically changing agri-economy, ecommerce and agri-exports.
Price Information and Market Intelligence System (PIMIS):
It is said that information and data is the ‘new oil’. Information is a double edged sword, while information asymmetry dissuades competition, information sharing sometimes may lead to anticompetitive practices like cartelization. Law enables the Central Government to develop a PIMIS for dissemination of information and would be a great tool at the hands of the farmers to know the demand and supply information for getting best for their farm produce. From competition perspective, the only challenge would be to monitor cartelisation in this space.
CONTRACT FARMING:
Fragmented small landholdings is one of the major challenges in India agricultural sector’s growth to which contract farming may be one solution. The second proposed legislation provides for empowerment and protection of farmers while entering into contract farming agreements if they wish to. The agreement would be in relation to the (a) the terms and conditions for supply of such produce, including the time of supply, quality, grade, standards, price and such other matters; and (b) the terms related to supply of farm services. Responsibility of the legal compliance part shall be on the sponsor. Rights of the sharecropper (bataidar) cannot be compromised through this agreement. Minimum period for this agreement would be one crop/livestock cycle and maximum 5 years, unless mutually decided more by the farmer and the sponsor wherein the production cycle of the crop is longer.
Protection to Farmers: There shall be clarity on prices and would not depend on contingency. Farm produce under contract farming shall be exempted from the applicability of State Acts. Sponsor is prohibited from acquiring ownership rights or making permanent modifications on farmer’s land or premises. Farming agreement may also be linked to the insurance or credit instrument under any scheme of Central/State Government. A registration authority is contemplated to provide facilitative framework for registration of farming agreements. One of the provision clearly mentions that “no action for recovery of any amount due in pursuance of an order passed under this law, shall be initiated against the agricultural land of the farmer.”
Minimum Support Price (MSP): This has been the most contentious issue in agriculture sector. While competition does not suggest prescribing any pricing, or MSP or subsidy, as this may be considered as market distorting. India being member of WTO has to also comply with the requirements on Agreement on Agriculture. A competitive market provides for price discovery based on demand and supply. Farm Bills does not provide any statutory backing to MSP. Otherwise, MSPs are announced by the government on the recommendations of the the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the enlisted crops (14 kharif, 6 rabi and 2 commercial crops). For sugarcane, Fair and Remunerable Prices (FRP) is declared. This topic requires a separate deliberation.
Aggregators and Farm Service Providers: Small farmers may take services of “aggregator” who acts as an intermediary between a farmer or a group of farmers and a Sponsor and provides aggregation related services to both farmers and Sponsor as well as that of farm service providers like pesticide control, harvesting services, etc.
Producer companies have now been proposed to be made part of the Companies Act 2013 under the 2020 Amendment (chapter XXIA-378A-ZU). ‘Producer companies include companies which are engaged in the production, marketing and sale of agricultural produce, and sale of produce from cottage industries.’
DE-REGULATION:
Regulation of the supply of such foodstuffs, including cereals, pulses, potato, onions, edible oilseeds and oils may now only be done under extraordinary circumstances which may include war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity of grave nature by notification of the Central Government. An order regulating stock limit (hoarding) of agricultural produce may be issued in the following circumstances: (i) hundred per cent increase in the retail price of horticultural produce; or (ii) fifty per cent increase in the retail price of non-perishable agricultural foodstuffs, over the price prevailing immediately preceding twelve months, or average retail price of last five years, whichever is lower. Public Distribution System (PDS) or the Targeted Public Distribution System orders are exempted from application of this deregulation, which means that procurement for PDS will not be hit by this order. Some concession is also available to a processor or ‘value chain participant’ of agricultural produce. VCP includes a set of participants, from production of any agricultural produce in the field to final consumption, involving processing, packaging, storage, transport and distribution, where at each stage value is added to the product.
What would need serious attention by the Government?
State Governments on Board: Agriculture is a State subject (Entry 14); however, the aforesaid legislation are likely framed under the concurrent powers vested with the Central Government (Entry 33) as opening up the whole agricultural produce market would require interstate facilitation, which in turn would need intervention of Central Government. Integrating the agricultural markets as one common market for the whole country offers several opportunities but also challenges which needs to be addressed.
Advocacy: Prime Minister has said that people are spreading rumors about the farm Bill’s disutility for the farmers. Hence it is necessary to educate the poor and gullible farmers about the benefits of the legislation and how they can avail it.
Dispute Resolution System: Conciliation Board has been provided as the mechanism of resolution and SDM is made the owner of this process. While this is a welcome step, if Mediation mechanism could have also been included it would have been better. Further the SDMs handling this profile would require special training and an orientation towards service (‘sevak’) and support to farmers. MS Swaminathan National Commission of Farmers in 2006 recommended that “the “net take home income” of farmers should be comparable to those of civil servants”. Farmers need to be treated as equal partners in economic development of this country. Let it not become another license raj bureaucratic system.
Paralegal Volunteers: The modern day farmer cannot be at the mercy of the traders. Farmers have to take assistance from legal professionals when entering into the legal contract. There is a huge opportunity to create para-legal professionals in each village who can help the farmers with their legal issues of farming contract and other disputes with traders. While the government shall provide for facilitation in terms of guidelines, some support through the existing village community information and service centers.
Competitiveness of Farmers: It is important to raise the agricultural competitiveness of farmers with small land holdings. However, at the same time, age old sensitivities to subsidies and MSP needs to be taken care of by the government, once the farmer gets hang of the new system, things would improve. Any change meets with some resistance, and this is a huge change rather a transformation of its kind. The visualization of farmers have mostly been dictated in movies and Indian literature as poor down-trodden person being exploited by traders (sahukars); however, the present requirement is that we look at the brighter side, that is ‘mere desh ki dharti sona ugle, ugle hire moti’ (my country’s land produces gold and pearls – lyrics from movie Upkar). If the farmer’s son looks at farming as an entrepreneurship opportunity, a lot can change the way we look at farming and its potential. This will cure several ills like migration, job scarcity and rapid urbanization. Need is to suggest positive changes in the laws and support implementation to the core.
Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh is Dean, School of Law at UPES Dehradun. Views are personal