FARM BILLS

By:- Group 3
 WHAT ARE THE FARM BILLS
The farm bill is a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years that has a
tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of
foods are grown. Covering programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers to
healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning farmer training to
support for sustainable farming practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and
farm systems. As a leading advocate for family farmers and sustainable agriculture, it’s
our job to make sure that this important bill is good for farmers, consumers, and for
the natural environment.
 PROS

Farmers will have a vast territory and an alternate channel to sell their
produce, creating a competitive market favorable to them. There will be a
corresponding market ecosystem for the farmers while in the earlier set up
they could only make deals through NAM system.

Farmers will not be bound to pay commissions to commission agents at mandis

to sell off their crops. The farmers will now move towards a free and more
flexible system.
● There is an amendment to the Essential Commodities Act. The purpose of this
act is to eliminate the insecurities of farmers. At present the traders
purchasing from farmers consider that the stocks are excess, they hold
stocks, and prices are penalized. This often imposed losses for the farmers.

● The existing APMC system leads to rise in a cartel led by traders. Thus there
is an unfair market and it pays farmers only the MSP for their produces.
 CONS
● Farmer union in Punjab and Harayana say that the recent laws enacted at the
center will dismantle the minimum support price (MSP) system.

● They argue that overtime, big corporate houses will dictate terms and farmers will
end up getting less for their crops.

● Farmers fear that with the virtual disbanding of the Mandi system, they will not
get an assured price for their crops and the the commission agents who also pitch
in with loans for the business- will be out of business.
● Farmers' products have been going from one state to another in the past and
the provisions of the new law are only for the benefit of the corporate and not
for the benefit of the farmers.

● States will lose revenue as they won’t be able to collect ‘mandi fees’ if farmers
sell their produce outside registered APMC markets.
 CONCLUSION

No doubt, the Bills help farmers by giving them freedom to sell the goods as per
their own choice. However, the biggest chunk of Indian farmers are small farmers
having no great education or source of income. The Bills, if become Acts, may
increase the income of farmers on short term basis, but on long term, the small
famers may end up becoming labourers of big corporates. Certainly the bills
contemplate corporatisation of farm sector and it has its own advantages as well as
disadvantages.