A farmers’ agitation in Punjab and Haryana over agriculture reforms by the central government amidst the Covid lockdown seems to be gathering pace as peasants from more states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have already joined forces. At the core of the agitation are three ordinances—Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020—which seek to open up the market for farmers, even as many states are yet fully bring into effect the model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act more than a decade after it was passed.
Agitating farmers in some parts of the country allege that small farmers are being cheated in the absence of APMC mandi safeguards. Denying the charge, Union agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal says “the system to ensure timely payment to farmers is very much there”. Defending the ordinances, which are to be tabled in Parliament as bills in the ongoing session, Agarwal says they “provide better options to farmers to sell their produce”. “In case of high-value products, which are related to industry, the ordinances provide farmers, specially small and marginal farmers, the safe option to tie up with industries for getting better and assured returns,” he adds.
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