Several Founders, Co-Founders, CXO Bankers, CXO Fintech professional & people who participated in the ePanel discussions:
- Mr. Rajiv Rai, former Chief Digital Officer, Edelweiss Financial Services
- Mr. Anutosh Bose, Executive Director- Asset Management, Nomura
- Mr. Hemal Shah, former Technical Product Manager, Mastercard
- Mr. Ajay B Panicker, CEO & Founder, NetPay Limited
- Mr. C V Ramana Rao, Sr Manager, Punjab National Bank
- Mr. Vikas R Panditrao, Co-Founder, Forum of Industry and Academic Knowledge Sharing (FIAKS)
- Many other CEO/CXO Bankers & Fintech professionals on FIAKS Forum requested to remain anonymous
Lok Sabha passes the farm bill which paves way for the entry of private players in the agriculture sector and allows farmers to sell produce outside beyond APMC and get better prices [1]
APMC- Agricultural Produce Market Committee operates under the State Government. APMCs eliminate the exploitation of farmers done by other intermediaries and safeguards the farmers who are forced to sell the produce at low prices
So, now this farm bill allows farmers more freedom to sell, right? Sounds good. Why was this not done earlier? Is the opposition to it purely political, or is there some hidden downside to this?
- The new bills will take away the exclusivity, which APMC’s currently enjoy over the purchase of farmers’ produce. There is an established chain of market intermediaries, who are terribly unhappy with this. These intermediaries are currently the big bosses in village panchayats & local bodies. For instance, the APMC elite in Maharashtra will be the opposition parties satraps. In Punjab, it will be the bigwig of the area. The ruling party is not so much part of this establishment & hence can think of doing away these multi-decade old systems.
- Impact on tax revenues for states. States collect something called a ‘Mandi Tax’ on all sales within the existing APMCs. There will be no Mandi Tax collection for sales outside the APMCs, under the new structure.
- Today the farmer in Punjab & Haryana can grow an unlimited quantity of Wheat & Rice because he knows that his produce will be picked up at an administered price by the Central Government, irrespective of the actual demand-supply situation. Farmers are genuinely worried that the new bills are a precursor of a dismantling of the administered price procurement system.
Here are some opinions put in by members;
- A member opines, “I have seen actual farmers supporting except a couple of states. This is truly a welcome bill. Though more work needs to be done on making farmers think like agripreneurs and people like us needs to support this.”
- Another member says, “a lot of people benefited from the mandi system, at the cost of the farmers’ well being. It is almost slavery now, because of how much control middlemen have in the whole supply chain and pricing.
- Like anything else, this is also going to be politicized, no doubt. Though, the fact is this could be a game-changer, especially once B2B / supply chain / farm-to-fork startups enter the space. May also see a remarkable increase in quality too, by reducing the need for use of strong chemicals (currently being used to make up for lack of efficient supply chain and logistics).
Have a look at this video which is a perfect Bollywood scene explaining the Farmer’s bill which was passed in parliament; REGISTER and READ the Complete discussions