ICFA head MJ Khan urges Centre to hold dialogue with farmers on new farm laws

Sep 27, 2020

New Delhi: Chairman of Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture(ICFA) Dr MJ Khan on Sunday urged the Centre to hold dialogue with farmers to allay their fears about the new agrcultural reform bills passed by Parliament, which has evoked nationwide protests from farmers.

Meanwhile, President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to the three controversial bills passed by Parliament this week.

The main arguments of farmers is that these new laws will lead to corporatisation of agriculture, and small farmers and grain traders would gradullay wiped out from the scene. Moreover, they fear that the government would finally withdraw from the procurement businsess and scrap MSP as there is no assurance in the newly passed legislation that the MSP will continue.

Dr Khan said corporates’ entry in agriculture per se was not bad, but it depends on what suitable regulations were in place to protect the interest of samll farmers.

”Farmers’ suspicion arose because the Government did not consult them either before the ordinances or after the ordinances, while it consulted the industry, which gave suspicion that the proposed law were meant only for the benefits of coprorates,” he told India News Stteam.

And then there was no context and no emergency for bringing in the ordinances amid the prevailing Covid pandemic, which has created doubts in the farmers’ mind about the intention of the Government, he added.

He pointed out that the Centre gave very weak arguments while explaining the need for the new farms laws. It said farmers under the new rules will be free to sell as much quantity as they like, but they were free to do so earlier too. Secondly, the Government said farmers would be allowed to store any quantity of their produce, for which there was provision in the existing law as well, and finally it was argued that the new law would give freedom to farmers to fix the price of their produce, but here the issue is that price of commodities is never fixed by the seller but by the buyer.

Replying to a question, Dr Khan said there is nothing as such wrong in the reforms of agriculture the new laws want to effect as this has been the demand for a very long time but the problem lies not in what is given but in what has not been spoken. Had there been written assurance in the legislation about the MSP, the farmers would not have been so agitated.

In his view, the newly legislated reforms would be beneficial for the farm sector, provided some of the concerns of the farmers were addressed.

He is for promoting farmers’ partnership with corporates, which will have long-term positive impact on the farm sector. Dr Khan also avocated promoton of export as that would lead to improvement in the quality of farm produce.

The ICFA chairman, while replying to a question, said that he was not in favour of bringing more land under agriculture and would like it to be freed for developmental activities as the existing land area under agriculture was enough to produce the required food due to the adavncements in technology.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM