Did the farmer leaders know about the real farmer problems or were the real farmers fooled?

Actually, the 3 Acts were black or had some hidden agenda of the peasant leaders.

1. These leaders were not aware of the problems of the farmers and you can understand from these arguments are given below in detail

• Legally guaranteed and market system to MSP
• Definition of farmer
• Government of India’s classification of farmers on the basis of land holdings
• Purchase of food grains at MSP & fund transfer through DBT
• Inclusion of locally produced food grains in PDS
• No arrival in mandis
• Unaware of the Government of India’s plans for storage

• Legally guaranteed and market system to MSP:- Farmer leaders had alleged that 3 Acts would destroy the mandis and along with the MSP guarantee was demanded. They were not aware that their demand for an MSP guarantee would ruin the market system. Mandis were set up to find out prices based on demand and supply. Why would the farmer take the agricultural produce to the mandi once the MSP is fixed? What is the use of taking the produce to the market? Presently in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, wheat and paddy are taken to mandis under MSP as arhtiyas are involved in procurement and farmers in other states are not taking wheat and paddy to mandis. Who will visit the mandis? Farmer or trader will definitely visit Kisan Mandi but the trader will say that he will not buy at MSP because import is cheap for me. From where mandi will get market fee which is major income for running mandi. Most of the agricultural produce is sold to local traders or village traders and these traders will buy at MSP. If local traders do not buy at MSP And he insists that he will buy at a market rate only. Will the needy farmer wait for a trader who will buy at MSP or will the farmer sell at the rate that the village trader has given?

Imagine how these SKM leaders fooled the farmers in a year and got brokerage from middlemen. Good Acts have been withdrawn which provide self-employment opportunities to the local unemployed youth.

• Definition of farmer:- In various government schemes, it has been defined that if the agricultural income exceeds 50% of the total income of a landholding (not that of a farmer’s family consisting of husband, wife, children and parents), then it should be considered as a farmer’s income. will be considered. for example; If the wife of a big businessman has landed in her name and has no other income. In such cases, she can take the benefit of the farmer and this has happened in the government schemes. – The farmer’s leaders were not aware of this

• Government of India’s classification of farmers on the basis of land holdings:- According to the land holdings, farmers are divided into 5 groups (marginal farmers (up to 1 ha or less than 2.5 Acre or 2.5 Kila), small farmers, (1-2 ha 0r 2.5 acre to 5 Acre or 2.5 Kila to 5 Kila) semi-medium Farmer(2-4 ha or 5 Acre to 10 Acre or 5 Kila to 10 Kila), Medium farmer(4-10 ha or 10 acre to 25 Acre or 10 kila to 25 kila )and Large farmer(>10 ha or 25 Acre) or 25 kilo) On the basis of this criteria, the benefit of loan waiver, interest subvention (other than KCC), subsidy in government scheme, economically backward reservation (EBC reservation) etc. is given and most of these schemes have been made for small farmers.Now the main issue is to look at the farmers of Rajasthan (except the farmers of irrigated areas of Ganga Nagar and Hanumangarh district), the income of these farmers is not equal to the small farmers (having 2 hectares) of irrigated areas. In Rajasthan, there are 14.16 lakh semi-medium (> 2 hectares to 4 hectares – i.e. 10.11% of the country), 11.31 lakh medium (4 to 10 hectares – i.e. 20.33 per cent of the country) and 3.59 lakh large farmers (> 10 hectares). Or those with 25 acres – which is 42.84 percent of the country). i.e. 29.06 lakh farmers in Rajasthan (38%-76.55 out of 76.55 lakh) are not getting its benefit (though Rajasthan government has excluded land criterion in EBC) Similarly semi-medium, medium and large living in rainfed areas Farmers, who are living in other parts of the country, like Vidarbha and Marathwada, Saurashtra region of Gujarat, North Karnataka, etc., are not getting the benefits of these schemes. I think the issue is bigger than the withdrawal of 3 Acts. But farmers leaders are not aware of this, many experts (So called experts and policy makers) say that the medium and big farmers take full advantage. Shame on farmer leaders and experts. They do not know where these farmers live.

• Purchase of food grains at MSP & fund transfer through DBT:- FCI is the nodal agency for the procurement of wheat and paddy for the country, which is distributed among the below poverty line families. Whereas pulses and oilseeds are procured by NAFED. Except in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, the procurement at the farmer level is handed over to the Village Development Co-operative Society in all other states. Only farmers are the members of these committees. These committees provide different types of facilities like fertilizers, seeds, farm machinery, godowns, medical stores etc. to the farmer. These committees are making good profit in the states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana etc. But the farmers leaders buy prevalent in other state. did not know about the arrangement In Punjab and Haryana more than 70% of wheat and paddy is procured under MSP, only in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan procurement is being done through arhtiyas. The estimated procurement cost of food grains in Punjab and Haryana alone exceeds Rs.75,000 crore per annum. 2% commission for purchases is given to the Arhtiya without any effort. This means that these middlemen (only for wheat and paddy) of Punjab and Haryana are being paid commission (2%) of over Rs 1500 crore/year by the Government of India, and after the withdrawal of the Act, by the Arhtiyas. Will continue buying. This means, this amount (Rs 1500 crore/year) could have been given to the Village Development Co-operative Society (which is owned by the farmers), but the farmer leaders were not aware of it, or else they were in touch with the arhtiyas and It was not made an issue under any hidden agenda. The amount of MSP was being transferred to the farmers directly in the account. It was also initially objected as to how this is possible. Whereas the same was happening in other states as well. But the farmer leaders were not aware of this.

• Inclusion of locally produced food grains in PDS:- (Atleast MSP can be ensured of locally produced)- If this demand was not there then how would the farmers of other states be benefited by the existing MSP? The farmer’s movement concludes that the farmers of Rajasthan, South Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, etc. Can demand from the state government that Bajra, Maize, Jowar and Mandua etc. should be included in the PDS. It is better to eat local produce like Bajra, Maize, Jowar and Mandua etc. PDS to give the benefit of MSP to the farmers Local produce of at least 10 kg/month can be included in this.

The peasant leaders did not demand it as they were only in favour of the farmers of Punjab.

• No arrival in mandis:- How many mandis were not getting arrival in the last 20 years and farmer leaders fooled the public that these mandis are closed due to 3 Acts.

• Unaware of the Government of India’s plans for storage:- The farmer leader was not aware that Gramin Bhandar Yojana and Agricultural Marketing Scheme were started in 2003-04 and 2008-09 to build warehouse/silo up to 30000 metric tonnes. The APMC Act was amended (by all states) and direct marketing, contract farming etc. were implemented in almost all states in 2009-10. They fooled the farmers in the name of Adani and Ambani.

I suggest- Direct marketing is the most effective marketing channel from producer to consumer. Please create your Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) and directly buy your inputs in bulk and sell your products to the consumer through value addition. The Government of India has a plan for FPO formation and this was never communicated to the farmers by the SKM.