Farmers bill: With farmers’ organizations and the opposition and regional parties intensifying protests against farm bills passed by Parliament this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday that his government’s agricultural sector reforms have given farmers the power to sell their products “anywhere and to anyone … where they can get a higher price as they wish.
“Our farmers, our villages are the very foundation of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” and “in the recent past, these areas have been freed from many restrictions and have tried to free themselves from many myths,” Modi said.
In his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio address, the Prime Minister tried to illustrate with examples how farmers would benefit from the changes.
He referred to Kanwar Chauhan, a farmer from Sonepat in Haryana, who had previously had his produce and carts confiscated if he tried to sell outside the mandi.
“But in 2014, fruits and vegetables were excluded from the APMC Act, which greatly benefited him and his fellow farmers … Four years ago, together with other farmers in his village, he formed an Agricultural Producers Organization (FPO ). Today, the village farmers grow sweet corn and baby corn. Its products are supplied directly to Azadpur Mandi, Delhi, large retail chains, and five-star hotels, ”said the prime minister.
“Currently, farmers in the village earn between 2.5 and 3 lakhs per acre per year growing sweet corn and baby corn. More than 60 farmers in this village … are producing varieties of tomato, cucumber, and pepper and earn 10-12 lakhs of rupees per acre every year. ”
Modi affirmed that “the one that is rooted to the ground is equally firm in the course of the greatest of storms”, and that “in this difficult period of Corona, our agricultural sector, our farmers are living testimony of this”. At a difficult time for the economy, the agricultural sector had been resilient, he said, and “if our farmers, our villages … remain strong, the foundation of Atmanirbhar Bharat will remain strong.”
Modi cited the example of Sri Swami Samarth Farm Producer Company Limited, an FPO in Maharashtra, which had used the reform to improve the situation for many farmers.
“Farmers in Pune and Mumbai are operating weekly markets,” Modi said. “In these markets, the produce of some 4,500 farmers, from almost 70 villages, is sold directly without intermediaries!
“Rural youth are directly involved in the process of growing and selling to this market. This directly benefits the farmers and the young people in the village have paid employment. ”
Modi also mentioned the Tamil Nadu Banana Farmers’ Produce Company, a collective of farmers who bought hundreds of tons of vegetables and fruits from nearby villages during the shutdown and supplied a combination vegetable kit to Chennai.
“Think about how many young people … they employed, and the interesting thing is that, due to the absence of intermediaries, not only did the farmer benefit, but the consumer also benefited,” he said.
Also in Lucknow, the Prime Minister said, a group of farmers called “Producer Campesino Iraada” had purchased fruits and vegetables directly from growers during the shutdown and sold them directly in city markets without the involvement of middlemen.
In Gujarat’s Rampura village of Banaskantha, Modi said, farmer Ismail Bhai had used drip irrigation to grow potatoes. “Today… he is growing very high-quality potatoes. Ismail Bhai sells these potatoes directly to large companies, intermediaries are out of the question. And the result: you are making huge profits. Now he has paid off all his father’s debts … he is helping hundreds of farmers in his region (and) also changing their lives. ”
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