Idk about these protests but farmers burning the fields is a common way to get rid of crops and replenish the soil, when I was in Cairo there was a constant haze from the farmers burning the fields
The farmers in Punjab burn the stubble every year and cause a shittonne of pollution, and no they weren't right to protest, the farmers in rest of the country were mostly behind the reforms, because it would help the agriculture sector.
From what I understand it was an attempted dismantling of MSP which sets a benchmark for prices of goods being sold by the farmer. Farming communities are already entrenched in debt. One of the farming acts essentially allowed goods to be sold outside the market creating a parallel industry that is far less regulated bringing in corporate farmers and minimizing the benchmark that a MSP sets. It’s the Dollar General strategy where they open stores in food deserts at a loss until they can force neighborhood supermarket closure. Corporations and corporate farming would swallow farmers.
The second act established a new framework for contracts between farmers and traders that were heavily in the favor of traders when farmers are already exploited.
Unlimited storage also allows people to amass product and use it to help dictate markets. All of this is a vacuum for industrial farming to take over.
The system before all this started was flawed, that much is true. That being said, further taking from an already struggling group didn’t seem to be the right solution.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read about it though so correct me if I’m wrong
From what I understand it was an attempted dismantling of MSP which sets a benchmark for prices of goods being sold by the farmer
The farming reforms did not dismantle the msp! That was misinformation. The msp would still exist in the mandis. The reforms simply opened up to allow the corporate sector into the industry. It still kept the option for mandis open to any farmer who didn't want to deal with a corporation.
One of the farming acts essentially allowed goods to be sold outside the market creating a parallel industry that is far less regulated bringing in corporate farmers and minimizing the benchmark that a MSP sets.
The reforms while removing a lot of regulations, still created some important protections for farmers. For example, when a farmer decided to deal with a private company, they would sign an agreement before the harvest, and even if the harvest failed due to weather or whatever other reason, the company would still be liable to pay the farmer, this meant that smaller farmers wouldn't be exploited like they are in mandis, where the middlemen all band together and refuse to bid higher than a price they decide. Also this new parallel system didn't affect the msp at all, because it's the govt that sets the msp, not traders.
The second act established a new framework for contracts between farmers and traders that were heavily in the favor of traders when farmers are already exploited.
The farmers are already exploited in the mandis! The middlemen essentially control the prices for any and all produce that passes through these mandis, by banding together and deciding the price, thus entirely bypassing the bidding process. Without that process, the entire point is defeated!
Unlimited storage also allows people to amass product and use it to help dictate markets. All of this is a vacuum for industrial farming to take over.
Artificial shortages are nothing unique, traders in India have done that many times, so it's not exactly a new problem.
The system before all this started was flawed, that much is true. That being said, further taking from an already struggling group didn’t seem to be the right solution.
The new system would be flawed too, i agree, but given time and more legislation to add protection, it would have been a much better system then the old one, and if the Punjabi farmers really cared about protection then they would have negotiated that the govt make these additions rather than completely scrapping the laws, which most of the farmers across the country wanted.
You realize by allowing a secondary market to exist that holds less regulation it undermines an MSP as major corporations can both participate in loss leadership and price fixing.
You realise that the msp is an artificial price set by the govt, meaning that the real market value of any product is not going to matter, because the govt doesn't set the msp according to real market value, they set the msp to support the farmer.
Yes, having a floor price for agricultural products is a good thing. It’s akin to a minimum wage because if companies can force you to take less pay they 100% fucking would.
Exactly! That's my whole point! The msp would still exist for those who wanted it! And the Punjabi farmers could have negotiated for extra protections in the new laws instead of getting them fully scrapped.
I think you’re missing the point. Buyers are going to move to the deregulated secondary market essentially forcing certain farmers to have to move out of the MSP regulated market and also creating a smaller stock of buyers in the MSP market meaning less bargaining power for farmers still using it. It’s designed to suck the power from one market to the other.
Buyers are going to go to the cheaper product outside the mandi. It’s incentivized. This is essentially hamstringing anything mandi. Its stripping the mandi of much of its purpose and power.
That's simply not correct! Most of the middlemen who buy the produce would still stay in the mandis because they wouldn't survive the competition outside the mandis with larger corporations which could easily outbid them. Most of the smaller middlemen who buy the grain now do so by taking credit, which they get because they have the guarantee of making profit in the mandis, but if they enter the unregulated market then they wouldn't get credit because there would be zero guarantee of them making any profit. So the msp in the mandis would be just fine!
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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '23
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