Terms of contract farming loaded in favour of farmers, says Tomar
The farm Bills are loaded in favour of small farmers vis-Ã -vis investors and these would completely transform their lives, said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday.
Tomar said the Bills passed by Parliament will bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers as they can sell their produce to any buyer, get a guarantee of price of their crops, go for crop diversification, use new technology and reduce their input costs.
Addressing a Press conference here at the BJP headquarters, the Minister said in Punjab farmers are taxed by 8.5 per cent in the “mandis” and they are forced to sell their produce at a low price. They also bear the transportation cost of moving their produce to the mandis.
“We have given them freedom to sell their produce outside mandis where there is no tax either by the Central or State Government,” the Minister said.
“Farmers do farming and take their produce to mandis. There are 25-30 people with licences in these mandis. They do auction of produce. Whatever price is decided in the auction, farmers are bound to sell their produce at that price whether they are happy or not because if they decide to take their products and go home and come back again, they will have to pay additional logistics cost,” Singh said.
He said 86 per cent of farmers in the country are small and marginal who would now get the guaranteed price of their produce from investor or processor without any risk. He said terms and conditions of the contract farming are loaded in favour of farmers. If prices of the produce go high after the contract is signed, investor is bound to give farmer a fixed percentage of high return than the originally agreed upon.
“Farmer can at any stage go back on his word and withdraw from the contract but the same cannot be done by investor who would be liable for a heavy penalty,” Tomar said. The Minister said any dispute between investor and farmer would be settled by sub-divisional magistrate within 15 or 30 days.
“If a farmer wants to come out of the agreement, he can do so. But a trader cannot pull out of the agreement. The trader can only leave the agreement after paying the farmer the price he had promised. There is full protection for farmers in these Bills. There cannot be any action concerning farmers’ land. If there is any dispute, recovery can only be done of the money, which the farmer has taken for growing the crop,” he said.
Tomar said the Modi-led Government has provided the freedom to farmers through the Bills. He said the Bills will free farmers from chains of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).
“Small farmers can now get a guarantee of their produce during the sowing of the crop. They can now go for expensive crops, use new technology, new seeds, good pesticides and reduce the input cost. These Bills are crucial and will bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers. I want to tell farmers that when provisions of these Bills will be implemented, there will be change in their lives,” he said.
The Minister rejected Opposition criticism over the Bills and asserted that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and APMC will continue as in the past.