Farm Bills 2020 Repealed: Relevance for UPSC Exam
- GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
- GS Paper 3: Indian Agriculture- Transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints.
Farm Bills 2020 Repealed: Context
- Recently, the Prime Minister of India announced to repeal the three contentious farm bills that were enacted on September 17, 2020.
- The government also asked the protesting farmers to end their protest against the new farm laws 2020 as the government has repealed the new farm laws.
Farm Bills 2020 Repealed: Key Developments
- Background: New Farm Acts 2020 was enacted by the Parliament last year which was followed by protests by farmers from across the nation, mainly from Punjab and Haryana in the borders of the national capital and in different parts of North India.
- The protests began last year when farmers marched towards the national capital demanding a complete repeal of the legislation, as part of a “Dilli Chalo” campaign.
- About farm laws: The three farm bills enacted by the parliament are-
- The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020;
- Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and
- Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
Farmer Producer Organisations: A Key to Achieve Doubling Farmer Income
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020- Key Features
- Trade of farmers’ produce: The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 allows intra-state and inter-state trade of farmers’ produce outside-
- The physical premises of market yards run by market committees formed under the state APMC Acts and
- Other markets are notified under the state APMC Acts.
- Electronic trading: It also permits the electronic trading of scheduled farmers’ produce (agricultural produce regulated under any state APMC Act) in the specified trade area.
- Market fee abolished: The farm law also prohibits state governments from levying any market fee, cess, or levy on farmers, traders, and electronic trading platforms for the trade of farmers’ produce conducted in an ‘outside trade area’.
Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
- Provision for Contract farming: It creates a national framework for contract farming which provides a legal framework for farmers to enter into written contracts with companies and produce for them.
- Pricing of farming produce: In an agreement, the price of farming produce should be mentioned.
- Prices that are subjected to variation, a guaranteed price for the product and a clear reference for any additional amount above the guaranteed price must be specified in the agreement.
- Also, the process of price determination must be mentioned in the agreement.
- Mechanism for Dispute Settlement: For the settlement of the disputes, an agreement of farming must provide a conciliation board as well as a conciliation process.
- Provision for a fair and balanced representation of parties in the Board should be there to the agreement.
Fair and Remunerative Prices for Sugarcane
Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020
- Deregulation: Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act provided for the exclusion of certain food items like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onions, and potatoes from the list of essential commodities.
- It was also expected to deregulate the production, storage, movement and distribution of these food commodities.
- Promotion of business activity: This farm Act allowed agribusinesses to stock food articles and remove the government’s ability to impose restrictions arbitrarily.
- Stockholding limits: This farm bill removed stockholding limits on such items except under “extraordinary circumstances”.
- The central government was allowed to regulate the supply during war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity of grave nature.
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