Farms Bill: The untold story

Is this so important for the small farmers to receive unsecured payment as per their need from commission agent at day time and late-night hours? India is victimising the farmers protesting. They have created groups; few groups are in favour of government and few others are against. Government has been alleging the Opposition and the Left as well. Government has not been behind when calling the traders, Commission agents as 'Bicholiya' (middlemen). Since the term eNAM was coined by the Prime Minister; there have been protests by Commission agents every six months in Punjab & Haryana. Question arises that government purchase the crops and farmers sell their crops to government; then what is the need of these Commission Agents? Are they really middle men? Curiosity increases why the government has given licences to these Commission Agents? Why the farmers demand payment through Commission agents? Why do only Punjab, UP and Haryana are in front?

Commission Agents purchase the shops in the Mandis developed by the government at huge cost, just to carry out the business of commission agent and earning for their family. Commission Agents act as an ATM for the small farmers of UP, Haryana and Punjab who owns less than one hectare land on an average. Farmers take money from commission agent for purchasing seeds, sowing crop, purchasing fertilizers, spray of weedicide and insecticides on crops and then to reap and taking crop to mandi. All this is done by commission agent because payment of crop is routed through him and he may deduct this payment made in advance to farmer while paying the price of crop.

This payment is just like unsecured loan and along with this, farmers may also take money in emergency situations like medical treatment, wedding ceremonies, etc. at very reasonable interest rate. Such payment is recovered by the commission agents from the crop payment of farmers in few years. This social relation will end with the crop payment to be made directly in the bank account of farmers by the government, because government price of purchasing crop i.e. MSP is greater than market price of crop. Government has built up an online platform, known as the procurement portal for making the record of advances to farmer by the commission agents and clearly taking the report of total payment made to the farmer for his crop by the commission agents. This portal is linked to the Aadhaar card of the farmer which is directly linked to the PAN card. Commission Agents have accepted this portal very well in Haryana in Rabi 2020.

That time commission agent uploaded consent form of farmer to deduct payment already received by him in advance for various crop operations and transferred the balance in the bank account of farmer. For a change, in Kharif 2020, those farmers who opted for payment through commission agent on online procurement portal, Government of Haryana allowed whole payment of crop of such farmer routed through commission agent without any account of advance. But now Government of India has asked the state governments to compulsorily transfer the whole crop payment directly in the bank account of farmers without deducting the payment already received by farmer from the commission agents.

Is this scheme made to stop small farmers stealing the tax of government or the government want to benefit the Corporates or is this about transparency in system? Generally, a farmer takes two to three crops in a year and earns few thousands per acre in each grain crop. Tens of welfare schemes are being run by the governments which are made for the upliftment of poor. Many subsidy schemes are being run for the farmers and small-scale industries. India had been the market of opportunities. About a million of people are in the agribusiness under the term commission agent or trader; every commission agent and trader have been given the option of employment for 2 to 10 people.

These Commission Agents do not consider themselves fit in the business of agriculture at Commission fixed by the government. Government of India has stopped paying Commission on crops purchased through NAFED and CCI such as Maize, Barley, Cotton, Oil seeds, cereals etc. only FCI is paying the commission on purchase of wheat and paddy at 2.5 per cent of the cost of MSP of grain. This has made Commission Agents believe that their business has come to an end and very soon the silos created by the big corporates will be purchasing the crops directly from the farmer under the scheme of Government of India.

Government of India, which is expecting big savings on new pattern of purchase; as there would be cost cutting on commission to State Government for handling the procurement, Commission to the Commission Agent, labour expense, transportation to the warehouse and deterioration of the grain. Is this so easy? Should Government of India not think about the security of payment made in advance to the farmer by the commission agents? Should the state governments, which have developed the Mandis and earned a huge amount on selling the plots to the commission agents, and issued the licence to work in Mandi think about the investment of these Commission agents as there would not be government purchase and there are many Mandis where private purchase is very less or negligible? Should Government of India restructure its decision for the employment of these middle-class Commission Agents? This is very good to be online for the transparency but it is more important to safeguard the employment of its citizens. This all has been considered as plan under the very old pattern of audit in the government offices; which prefers the schemes to save the hard-earned money of taxpayers. If this is right, then why Government of India is promoting subsidy schemes? Unemployment brings up crime. I wish a day came, when Government of India plans more for the employment than for the savings. If current system continues, India will start suffering with some new problems. There would be huge labour but there would not be huge employment. There would be poor and the rich, but there would not be huge population of middle class which is dreaming to be rich today.

The biggest democracy is run by the elected politicians and selected bureaucrats; but we do not see much of poor people from general category participating in the general elections of this biggest democracy. Do these politicians really manage to compete elections at a minor amount of few lakhs? Why don't government arrange the stage where they make speeches and participate in healthy debate with the opposing candidate? Why do these politicians require huge rallies and marathon sittings with people and speaking too much on temporary stages at their own expense? Root cause of few issues lies in the expense of elections. Stop people paying a single penny for participating in elections. They should be allowed only to make speeches and debates on the stages arranged by the government. They should be issued pamphlets prepared by the government to be distributed at the houses of people residing in their constituency.

The great economist has approved FDI in retail. The opposition when in power has increased the sphere of FDI in retail. It is more than one billion population country, where educated children are struggling for employment. Highly educated children do not want to labour; but it is not being accepted in the offices of government; because there have been PhD students who are applying for the post of a peon. What is the better option for these educated newcomers; they can join their parents in their business, farming or labour or they could become a shopkeeper.

Not all the educated people have exceptional talent to join job and withdraw salary in millions. Many of them accept the job for making few thousand rupees. FDI in retail and online as well as offline platform for sales through direct marketing by the big corporates have affected the retail business of small shopkeepers. Direct selling by companies in malls and other places could be avoided by the government in India just for the sake of employment. Because big corporates in retail purchase in huge quantity directly from manufacturer, they can sell the products at cheaper price as compared to small shopkeepers who purchase from the traditional supply chain system.

(The author is the General Secretary, Haryana State Anaj Mandi Adhti Association and Spokesperson, Rashtriya Adhti Vyapar Sangh)