In the last few days, you must have seen photos like this.





You must have shared photos and videos of these protests.

There are many people who say"Jai jawan Jai kisan" online but forget about the real issue a few minutes later.

we're happy knowing half-truths and half-truths are even more dangerous than lies, if you want to help the farmers, first understand why they have these problems?

problem no. 1

Farmers don't trust the government "The farmers (empowerment and protection agreement on price assurance and farm services ACT,2020)" This is the act that regulates contract farming and the dispute redressal in this act is quite weak.

If there are any disputes when a farmer contract with a company. How will the farmer get the right protection?

This a big loophole because all that this act states is that 'any dispute will be resolved by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate' this is a weak provision called Corporation Can Exploit This.

And that is what the farmers are afraid of before you can reap the result from the policy you need to sow the seed of trust with stakeholders, so what can we do?

We can tell farmers about existing laws that help them. Farmers can get protection under consumer protection ACT, 1986. the Supreme Court gave a decision in a Farmers vs Corporate case.

[SC: In cases where a farmer has purchase goods/availed of services to grow the produce in order to eke out a living hood, the fact that the seller or services provided or to a third party can't stand in the way of farmers amounting to a "consumer" under consumer protection ACT,1986.]

it said that when farmers and a corporate enter into a contract where the farmer takes seeds or services from the company and grow some outputs for the corporate, the farmer is a 'consumer' and can go to consumer court. A Supreme Court decision is considered the law of the land. this ruling can help farmers.

in such cases, the consumer court will hear farmers' grievances. This is a big victory for the farmer.

('specify clause-by-clause' objections to farm law by tomorrow,' say, agriculture minister Tomar)

this judgment can be used by farmers to reach a solution. experiences are varied, some made profits and others lost. earlier these contracts used to be verbal contracts, where the chances of a farmer losing out are high.

when the agreement is in writing, you have proof of terms. farmers need to know their rights!

problem no.2

The infrastructure system we have currently is broken. 

[farmers' produce trade and commerce (promotion and facilitation)ACT 2020] in this act govt. want to eliminate middle-men to increase farmers' income, eliminating a middleman is profitable for both farmers and consumers when only the middlemen do noting expect to raise prices.

APMCS are supposed to provide services to the farmers in the form of a marketplace. like sorting, weighing, storage, etc.

the mandi system is far from perfect. there are  7320 market and sub-market yards in India but they are not equally distributed across the country. In Punjab, 116SQ KMS is for one mandi, in Meghalaya 11215 SQ KMS for one mandi.

Farmers from different states have varied experiences. The aim here should be to increase competition in buyers so that, farmers get better prices and a better choice. farmers have this one fear that the companies with deep pockets will eliminate mandis.

At first, they will offer a better price to the farmers then they eliminate mandis, they will think for their profits.

we cant replace ane broken system with another one, end the problem of monopsony, and established a free market. the second act gives farmers a choice to sell anywhere and to keep this choice open for farmers mandis will have to improve.

but how will farmers benefit from the increasing competition?

Let's take an example, Army camp canteens sell daily provisions to the army at the cheapest rates likewise in MP plane to sell items that farmers need to mandis at discount to market rates .when 'Mahuva' APMC realized that there was competition, they said they had collected Rs. 1.5 crore through mandis cess, that they used to give subsidy to farmers for fencing and discount on the solar panel.

 This is called value addition, if mandis start giving service like this to farmers then farmers will return to the mandis to sell their produce.

problem no. 3

why farmers are poor?

Soil health is decreasing, more than 50% of households are in-depth of the loan(never-ending debt cycle), input cost is high while output margin is less. more problems like this, 3 Act don't address this deep systemic issue, because these activities focus on marketing, not on the production of cops.

One suggestion to improve farmers' income is "crop diversification "RBI suggests this too. and this is already happing in India

let's take the example of Bina Devi from Bihar

She learned organic farming and mushroom cultivation, mushrooms have high protein and a vast market demand understanding the market and spreading less to produce crops has meant Bina Devi earns Rs.1 lakh per month. that too from her small farm.


In Punjab, growing an exotic fruit like the dragon fruit, farmers are earning profits by spreading less money and water. But how?

Harbans Singh kept up with the changing times, today one side calls these acts the Blacks Act, and the other side believes that this act solves all problems.

The actual truth lies somewhere in between these two sides. this is clear, the farmers are wounded and these wounds need to be filled, wounds are filled by building bridges, not trenches. using water canons, throwing tears gas, and doing lathi charge, it's equal to saying that there is no wound, ignoring legitimate concerns can increases problems in the future, the center need to understand this.

likewise calling these laws black laws is an injustice to the other farmers who have benefitted from them and who want a choice.

see, there are a few logical gaps in these laws. What if big corporations start looting farmers?What if the MSP declaration stops?What if the mandis become completely redundant?

we can see futures fear but gains usually take time. these protests have been going on for months and still, there is no progress in the deadlock between sides.

This is a big communicating failure. 

and where there is a gap in communication like this it becomes possible to hijack a protest ,with misinformation.

like people are being misled that contract farming will mean that over agriculture land. using misinformation to make people emotional is wrong, and the problem is when this lie is exposed, then your point starts losing validation as well, here it is our responsibility that we don't think emotionally, but rationally before sharing anything, confirm the facts of the cases.