Small farmers spared, say economists on rollback

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 19

Though the government said the three agricultural laws would open up new avenues for farmers and increase their income, farmers disagreed, saying the laws would have made them vulnerable to private traders. The Tribune talked to a few experts and farmers after the Prime Minister announced to repeal the laws today.

Dr Sukhpal Singh, principal economist (agriculture marketing), Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), said besides economic, the laws had social and cultural implications. He said these laws were dangerous for the community as ownership farming would have got finished and the farmer would have been reduced to a wage labour.

“People in Punjab do not want more money but they need ownership of the land. Farmer is recognised in Punjab by the land he owns,” he said. He said under the new laws, production would have been controlled while even under the Green Revolution production was never controlled.

Laws threatened land ownership

Besides economic, the laws had social and cultural implications. Ownership farming would have been finished and a farmer would have been reduced to a wage labourer. —Dr Sukhpal Singh, Principal economist, PAU

MSP would’ve become irrelevant

The farming community was worried as the central agricultural laws would have made the MSP system irrelevant. Farmers were not assured of income from their farming. —Paramjeet Singh, Farmer from powat village

Dr Kamal Vatta, Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, PAU, said these laws were not beneficial for the farming community of Punjab and should have been repealed earlier. He said these would have brought a weakened MSP regime and farmers’ income, which was already stagnant, would have only got worse under the new regime.

“The government was talking about diversification but no law was made or no efforts were made to promote other crops. There were no special benefits for small farmers. Instead, they were to lose the ownership of their land,” he said. Former PAU Vice-Chancellor Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon said the agitation would have a long-lasting effect on society. “Democracy has won today,” he said.

Paramjeet Singh of Powat village in Machhiwara, who grows various crops, including wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, turmeric, vegetables, fodder crops and fruits, and has won several awards at the national and state levels, said new laws would have handed agriculture to a few corporates and the farming community was happy with today’s decision.

“Even before farmers, common public would have been affected if the laws would not have been repealed. The farming community was worried as the new laws would have made the MSP system irrelevant and farmers were not assured of income from their farming,” he said.

Manpreet Singh Grewal, president, Natural Farmers Association, said the laws were dangerous for small farmers as mandi system would have been finished. “Farmers were worried about MSP and it should have been fixed for other crops as well. Repealing of farm laws is a good decision,” he added.