New farm laws to boost competition; give better returns: CEA

New farm laws will ultimately help farmers get better returns as the legislations provide for competition by allowing them to sell their produce to even corporates like Reliance and ITC for good prices, Chief Economic Advisor K Subramanian said on Monday.

The farm laws were cleared by Parliament last year but the Supreme Court, in January 2021, suspended their implementation amid protests by farmers.

The farm laws are a step towards improving the incomes of small and marginal farmers, Subramanian said. Critics of the laws have been questioning the manner in which the bills were passed and alleged that the reform will help big businesses by corporatising farm activities.

Subramanian said the insistence on selling goods only at Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) markets dented farmers' realisations because the buyer who acted as an intermediary had an upper hand in the trade due to factors like it being a perishable commodity or the costs involved in coming to the market again. "The farm bill provides for competition so that the small and marginal farmer can go to the intermediary and say if you are not going to provide a good price, I can go and sell it to someone else. That someone else could be ITC, Reliance or Farm Fresh," he added.

Speaking at an event to celebrate the foundation event of Nabard, he said these entities will compete for farmers' produce, which will ensure that a farmer, especially a small and marginal farmer, will get the adequate value of the produce.