Economic Survey 2020-21: Farmers continue to protest against the central agricultural laws on the border of capital Delhi. Amidst all this, the Central Government has defended these laws in the annual Economic Survey presented in Parliament on 29 January today. According to the Economic Survey, these laws have been prepared mainly for the benefit of small and marginal farmers. The number of small and marginal farmers in India is about 85 percent of the total farmers. According to the Economic Survey, a new time of market freedom is starting through these laws. This will bring a big change in the lives of small and marginal farmers of the country.
On the other hand, farmers are opposing these laws, saying that it will benefit the corporates and it will harm the government Mandis Agr
Focus on the need to improve APMC even before
According to the Economic Survey 2020-21, some earlier economic surveys have raised concerns about the functioning of APMC. In this context, the economic survey of 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2019-20 focused on the need to improve. According to the Economic Survey, farmers under the new agricultural laws Anyone anywhere in the country gets an option to sell their crop. According to the survey, till now farmers had many restrictions to sell their crop outside the mandi, due to which they had to suffer losses. Apart from this, farmers were allowed to sell their crops only with the registered licensees of the state government.
Loss to farmers due to APMC regulations
According to the survey, farmers have suffered a lot due to APMC regulations. Due to many intermediaries between farmers and consumers, the profits of the farmers are reduced. Apart from this, the tax and cess levied by APMC has an impact on the benefit of the farmers, while only a small part of this tax and cess is used in the development of mandi infrastructure. The profitability of the farmers is affected due to the weak infrastructure of the mandi.
According to the economic survey, manual weighing, single window system and lack of a modern process of grading and sorting are delayed and weights are mistakes that harm the seller (farmers).
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Farmers’ land fully protected
According to the survey, under the new agricultural laws, farmers will have the power to fix the price of their crop in any contract and they will get the price of the crop within a maximum of three days. The survey said that the risk of market uncertainty will no longer be up to the farmers and through the new agricultural laws, this risk has been transferred to the sponsor, who is buying the crop from the farmers. According to the Economic Survey, farmers have got adequate protection under the new agricultural laws because there is a complete ban on the sale, lease or mortgage of their land.
Fair price of crops to small farmers through FPO
According to the Economic Survey, under the new agricultural laws, 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) have been formed across the country. These FPOs will bring small farmers together and work will be done to ensure better prices for their crops. Once the contract is in place, the farmers will not have to work hard to sell it because the buyers will have to come to the farmer and buy the crop themselves.
Investment in the agriculture sector will be encouraged
Under the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020, kinds of cereal, pulses, oilseeds, edible oil, onions and potatoes have been removed from the list of essential commodities. This step has been taken to reduce the fear of excessive regulatory intervention by private investors in their business operations.
According to the economic survey, the freedom to produce, keep, transport, distribute, distribute and supply crops will bring more private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector. Due to these laws, investment in cold storage will increase and the food supply chain will be modern.