INTRODUCTION

India is a country where farmers buy products at retail, sell them at wholesale, and pay freight both ways. In 2020, three bills were passed by the parliament of India and were sanctioned by the president; these bills were commonly known as farm bills. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services bill, 2020; Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 were actually passed to liberalize the trade in agriculture produce by ending the monopolies of Agriculture produce market committee that is APMC, mandis and marginalizing the grip of the middle man is declared as anti farmers bill by many political parties and social groups. Earlier all the production done by the farmers was procured under APMC Act and transportation was done by mandis. Mandis, later on, turned into local markets due to which farmers were exploited. The farm’s bills could actually be declared as a historic event if suggestions and recommendations were taken by the select committee but the passage of these bills relied on the voice vote which allowed the opposition party to raise questions on the authenticity and validity of the bills. This also gave momentum to protest which has created a chaotic situation in the country.

ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES ACT, 2020

The EC (Amendment) Bill 2020 expects to eliminate fears of private investors of unreasonable administrative impedance in their business activities. The opportunity to deliver, hold, move, convey and supply will prompt bridling of economies of scale and draw in private sector/unfamiliar direct interest into the agriculture sector. It will help drive up interest in cold storage and modernization of the food inventory network.

The Government, while changing the administrative climate, has additionally guaranteed that the interests of consumers are defended. It has been given in the Amendment that in circumstances like war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity, such agriculture products can be directed. In any case, the introduced limit of a value chain member and the demand of an exporter will remain excluded from such stock cutoff burden in order to guarantee that interests in agriculture are not debilitated.

IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF THE ACT

• The Act enables the central government to allocate certain commodities (like food things, composts, and oil-based goods) as fundamental commodities. The central government may manage or preclude the creation, supply, conveyance, exchange, and trade of such fundamental items. The Ordinance gives that the central government may direct the supply of certain food things including cereals, pulses, potatoes, onions, eatable oilseeds, and oils, just under extraordinary conditions such as war, famine, extraordinary price rise, and natural calamity.
• This Act empowers the central government to manage the stock of a fundamental item that an individual can hold. The Ordinance necessitates that burden of any stock breaking point on certain predefined things should be founded on price rise. A stock limit might be forced just in case there is (I) 100% expansion in the retail price of plant products; and (ii) half expansion in the retail price of durable agrarian food things. The increment will be determined over the price prevailing promptly going before a year, or the normal retail price of the most recent five years, whichever is lower.
• The arrangements of the Ordinance with respect to the guideline of food things and the inconvenience of stock cutoff points won’t have any significant bearing on any administration request identifying with the Public Distribution System or the Targeted Public Distribution System. Under these frameworks, food grains are distributed by the public authority to qualified people at subsidized prices.

CONCLUSION

The aim of this act is to removing stock holding limits on the products like pulses, potatoes, oilseed, onion, etc. Opposition parties and other social groups believed that this bill would create a big problem for the farmers and will ultimately destroy them. They said that this bill would give a greater advantage to the big companies as these companies would try to dictate the farmers and will ultimately exploit them. Whereas the government of India believed that this bill would boost the investment in the agriculture sector and will also create more storage capacity to reduce the post-harvest loss to the crops and thus it would be beneficial for both farmers and consumers both. This bill aimed at doubling the income of farmers. The government also believed that this bill would boost the investment in the agricultural sector and will also create more storage capacity to reduce the post-harvest loss to the crops.

India is trying to adopt the farm bill with great hope. But bills like contract farming failed in some developed countries as many contract farmers were at great risk of market failure and these bills also created a monopoly situation in foreign countries as sponsored companies were unreliable and corrupt. Prime Minister Modi tried to protect farmers from exploitation and has tried to learn from the failure of other countries by adding essential provisions in farm bills. Earlier it was believed that the best solution to safeguard the interest of farmers was the government procurement of all farm produce at high prices but it is not possible practically as it would induce a glut because of which there would be neither domestic sale nor foreign sale. This strategy was adopted by the European Union but they failed and they had to safeguard the interest of farmers by providing direct income. The biggest problem in India that created the hindrance in the proper implementation of bills is unawareness. If this bill is implemented properly then it would create a suitable environment for the farmers because of which India can become a food export powerhouse in the future. The aim of these bills is to modernize Indian farmers as the hands of farmers are not tied by ropes but by the greed of intermediaries. Though these bills actually reflect the commitment of Prime Minister Modi towards the development of farmers and the agriculture sector but due to some unavoidable reasons and political influences public interest in government is shaking, so government should try to regain the interest by ensuring that these bills would actually end the rule of powerful groups and would directly benefit the farmers