Farm Laws- New Thinking for the New-age Farmer

Why are majority of around 100-150 Million farmers happy with the farm?  Because farm laws are a result of years of deliberations by all stakeholders and recommendations by experts. For around 2 decades we've been suggesting the same things as recommendations to improve the agriculture sector of India. Today’s farmer is not a helpless person who needs freebies, he is an Agricultural Entrepreneur. He doesn’t just need support from the govt., he needs investment, partnership, access to markets and skilling and training to apply modern technology to increase his yield. Today’s farmer is not a labour, he is a businessman who needs the freedom to decide where his produce goes, he needs access to supply chains in urban areas, and he needs to be the actual beneficiary of new trends like grocery apps and drone technology to gather data about his fields. There are new start-ups that farmers are collaborating with that give them information on the health of their soil, leaves and crops, every farmer should be able to use these. You can’t one day wake up and tell a farmer to save water and stop flooding his crops, you need to guide him towards precision farming. For everything that the new age requires, the farmer needs to be an independent and autonomous unit. The role of govt. can only be to hand-hold and provide cushioning for when he falls. Which is exactly what the farm laws seek to do. 

Chronology of where provisions of these laws come from:

•19 DECEMBER 2000: Expert Committee set up by The Ministry of Agriculture On “Strengthening and Developing of Agricultural Marketing” under the Chairmanship of Shankerlal Guru

• 29 JUNE 2001: Shankerlal Guru Committee Submits Report

• 1 JULY 2001: Report of the Task Force on Employment Opportunities, Chaired By Montek Singh Ahluwalia

• 4 JULY 2001: Inter-Ministerial Task Force Constituted Under RCA Jain

• 9 SEPTEMBER 2003. Model APMC Act created

• 29 DECEMBER 2004: National Commission on Farmers, Chaired by MS Swaminathan, Submits It's First Report, “Serving Farmers And Saving Farmers: First Report”

• 11 AUGUST 2005: National Commission on Farmers, chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, submits its second report, “Serving Farmers and Saving Farming: From Crisis to Confidence”

• DECEMBER 2005: FAO of the United Nations submits a report to The National Commission on Farmers (NCF), “Towards an Indian Common Market: Removal of Restrictions on Internal Trade in Agriculture Commodities”

• 29 DECEMBER 2005: National Commission on Farmers, chaired by MS Swaminathan, submits its third report, “Serving Farmers and Saving Farming: 2006: Year of Agricultural Renewal”

• 13 AUGUST 2006: National Commission on Farmers, chaired By MS Swaminathan, Submits Its Fourth Report, “Serving Farmers and Saving Farming: Jai Kisan: A Draft National Policy For Farmers”

• 4 OCTOBER 2006: National Commission on Farmers, chaired by MS Swaminathan, submits its fifth report in two volumes, “Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth of Farmers’ Welfare”

• 2007 (UNDATED): MODEL APMC RULES, 2007

• FEBRUARY 2012: Economic Survey 2011-12, Chapter 8: Agriculture and Food

• 22 JANUARY 2013: Final Report of Committee of State Ministers, Incharge Of Agriculture Marketing To Promote Reforms, chaired By Harshvardhan Patil

• FEBRUARY 2013: Economic Survey 2012-13, Chapter 8: Agriculture and Food Management

• FEBRUARY 2014: Economic Survey 2013-14, Chapter 8: Agriculture and Food Management

• FEBRUARY 2015: Economic Survey 2014-15 Volume I, Chapter 8: A National Market for Agricultural Commodities- Some Issues and The Way Forward

• AUGUST 2017: Economic Survey 2016-17 Volume 2, Chapter 7: Agriculture and Food Management

• 3 JANUARY 2019: Standing Committee on Agriculture (2018-2019), Ministry of Agriculture And Farmers Welfare: Agriculture Marketing And Role of Weekly Gramin Haats

• 24 SEPTEMBER 2020: Three laws that give farmers flexibility to Sell, Remove Price Controls, And Protect them as they deal with Industry enacted by Parliament

Source: https://www.orfonline.org/.../intellectual-biography.../...

Try new things if the old ones don’t work and consistently strive to be better than you were yesterday. Applies to a person and the country as well. 

Best wishes, to all of us.