Open Access Research Article
UNDERSTANDING AGRICULTURAL LAW AND REFORMS IN INDIA
Published Paper
Article Details
UNDERSTANDING AGRICULTURAL LAW AND
REFORMS IN INDIA
AUTHORED BY - NIVEDITA DIMRI.
(LLM - CORPORATE LAW)
Abstract
India is a country where
agriculture has been continued from thousands of years and has given a great
employment to people but still when it comes to agriculture India conditions in
it is not upto the mark. Agricultural law and reforms has been changes a lot by
changing with time. There has been major reforms taken place in recent time and
passed three new agriculture law. I have tried to study them and analyse them
from two approaches they are socialist and capitalist approach. In this paper I
have talked about historical background, examine the evolution and their impact
and also highlighted the significance of recent agricultural reforms and
analysed key legislative changes in Farm Act of 2020. I have also tried to
answer the issue that is our agricultural law and reforms are made right and
whether it will help people to achieve their goal of doubling farmers income. A
focus point of this research is the research explores the role of technology
and digitalization in reshaping agricultural practices, examine the legal
framework that govern innovation such as e-mandis and farm technology adoption.
I have also mentioned the challenge faced in Agricultural law and reforms in
India. At last what should be done to get profits and what policies should made
for growth and development in the Indian Agriculture and changes in legal structure
in shaping the future. agriculture in India.
Keywords - Agriculture,
Reforms, Farm Act
INTRODUCTION
The contribution of Agriculture to
a nation's economic development and expansion has long been identified. The structural reform and stabilization
policy initiated in 1991 primarily spotlighted on industries, tax reform,
international trades, banking and stock market. The economic reform didn’t comprise the particular packages specially
made for agricultural purpose.
In recent times, the government
with a purpose to renovate the agricultural industry introduced the Farm Act.[1] It intend to offer farmers free market
accesses as well as the frameworks for contract farming and to endorse
agriculture infrastructures by remove cap on the storages of important
agriculture products. Prior to the initiation of the Farm Act, the agricultural
market was controlled with State specific Agriculture Produce Marketing
Committee (APMC) law. According to this Act, market regulated in APMC laws were
establish for farming people to sell
their produce to licensed trader and agent.[2]
The license trader would then further sell the produces to vendor. The major
function of the APMC is to make sure that the farming people get fair prices
for their products. As per this Act, agriculture people were also guaranteed of
the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their products by government authorities.
In the occurrence the agricultural products wasn’t bought by the licensed
traders, the authorities would purchase the produces from them at this decided
upon prices.
The key modifications in the law
comprised: (a) relax restriction on the buy and sell of agricultural products
that occur via state government controlled market places called mandis; (b)
loosen restriction on stock and movements of food item that are termed as
“essential commodity”, permitting stockpiling; and allowing farmer to go into
contract farm agreement with buyer openly, therefore bypassing mandis and
giving regional dispute resolution mechanism.
Safeguarding farmers are demanding
the government repeal the Farmer law, which they say would erode the role of
large, legalized wholesale marketplaces that they relied on to sale their
products, and make it simpler for large agri-business to manage directly with
farmer in an unregulated spaces where farmers hold more powers.[3]
Historical perspective of agricultural reforms in India
India has executed many
agricultural reforms since independence in 1947. The primary signal of reform,
in 1950s and 1960s, aimed to increase agricultural production, efficiency and
self-reliance.
Since 1970 Indian farming sector
has practiced repeated development pathway around long run yearly average of
2.8%. It is in sharp difference to performance of non-agriculture sectors which
reveals hastening in expansion over time mainly after 1991 when the nation
embraced monetary reforms.
Export obstacles were eliminated,
and farmer was motivated to develop cash crops. Whereas this opened up new
opportunities, it also exposed small farmers to international price
instability.
Advancement in technologies
brought about new avenues in agriculture. The introduction of GM crops, latest
machineries, and digital platform for information disseminations are important
instances of technological reform that keep on to form Indian farming sector.
The latest agricultural reforms
initiated in 2020 focused at deregulate the agricultural marketplace,
permitting farmers more liberty to selling their products outside government
controlled marketplaces. The farmers law sparked extensive protest and debate,
imitating the multifaceted nature of farming reforms in India.[4]
Latest Farm Laws
The Farmers Produce Trade and
Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020: permits intra state and interstate trade of
agricultural products beyond the physical premise of APMC marketplaces. State government is banned from levying any
market fee or levy outside APMC area.
The Farmers (Empowerment and
Protection) Agreements on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020: It is a
bill that makes regional frameworks for contract farming via the agreements
among the farmers and buyers before the manufacturing or rearing of any farm
produce.
The Essential Commodities
(Amendment) Act, 2020: It mainly tries
to boost competition in the Indian farming industry, resultantly rising the
revenues of farmers. This bill targets both liberalization of the regulatory
systems vis-à-vis, safeguarding the interests of the buyers. The Amended Act
empower the Union Government to manage the manufacturing, delivery, trade, and
trade in certain products with an intention to boost competition in farming
sector, increase revenue of farmers, and loosen the legal systems whereas
safeguarding the interest of the consumer.[5]
Benefits of Agricultural Reforms
Levels playing fields: The latest
Farm Act would make powerful farmer for engaging with processor, wholesaler,
aggregator, wholesaler, large retailer, exporter etc, on the levels playing
field without any misuse.
Transfer the risks: It would
transferring the risks of market volatility from the farmers to the sponsors
and allow the farmers to accept new technologies and better efforts.
Attract private sector: The laws
would act as a mechanism to magnetize private sector investments for making
supply chain for supply of Indian agricultural products to regional and
international marketplaces, and in farming infrastructures.
Eliminate intermediaries: Farmer
will keep in direct marketing thus eliminate intermediaries resulting in entire
realization of cost.
B2B transactions carried out among
one farmer and the other, like wholesalers and retailers. According to this
law, large firms would buy raw materials from farmer to be utilized in their
production processes.
It will be no necessity for any
type of licenses for buyers of agricultural products from farmers in the
trading areas outside APMC mandis, but also those holding PAN card or any
documents can attend the trade. It will ease trade in farmer produce and will
advantage the farmer.
Contract farm may safeguard farmer
from any key price fluctuation because of demand or undecided condition. These
reforms provide safety to the farmer relating to the income. It binds the
purchaser and farmers in the reciprocally agreed contracts even before the
farmers begin rearing or sowing the produces. Therefore, the farmers can rest
guaranteed that his crops would be buy at particular price and so he can target
more on the quality of their produces.[6]
Constitutional validity of Famers Act
Article 246 place “agriculture” in
entry-14 and “market and fair” in entry-28 of State Lists. However entry-42 of
the Union Lists empower the Centre to control “inter State trades and
commerce”. Whereas trading and commerce “in the States” are as per entry-26 of
the State List, it is put through the provision of entry-33 of the Concurrent
Lists – in which the Centre may create law that will overcome over those passed
by state.[7]
The problem of the
constitutionality of farm law boil down to whether the Union Government is
motivated to enact this law depended on entry-33 of Concurrent Lists or it has
violates the privileges of State as protected in different entries associated
to agriculture and related subjects in State Lists.
The act of primary sales at the
mandis by the farmers are as much “agriculture” as creation in the field.
“Trades” begin only after the agricultural products have been “marketed” by
farmers.
The tax of agricultural product
remain the matter of state. Therefore, the intrusions of Parliament on this
matter is not warranted. In addition, the trading areas described in the Farmer
Act don’t intricate upon its definitions of the trade areas and how it fights
of the powers of State Law. Marketplaces are basically a trade area as broad
varieties of trading practices occur within marketplaces, and it is the
identified term in Section 2 (Competition Act, 2002)
The Supreme Court has pointed out
that in Hoechst Pharm Limited vs State of Bihar[8]
that the effect of the assents of President to the state act, although not
consistent with an earlier Union law on Concurrent subjects, will be that the
state laws would reign in that state and it would supersede the provision of
the central act there. [9]
In Rakesh Vaishanv vs. UOI[10]
case, Supreme Court opined that ongoing
protest and debates over the “farm laws” has been complied with storms of
criticism. It has “stayed the implementation” of the three farm laws “until
further order” and establish the committees “for the aim of listen to the grievance of the farmer
associating to the farm law and the view of the Central Government and to draft
suggestions”.
Negative aspects of the Acts
The Famers act was done in
reliable way. The respective state should manage their Farming and related
problems. On the other hand, state input wasn’t concerned in primarily and also
the most effected party “the farmer” wasn’t permitted to disclose their
problems.
APMC are fairly helpful for the
small farmers who don’t inclination to go additional bounds for the sale of
their products. It might tinker with the fundamental framework of APMC’s and
can guide the APMC’s mere to perform as an establishment without much of the
control in hand.
There are no guarantee that it
would grow the profits of the farmers. In latest occasions, in Bihar the APMC
was cancelled and it was viewed that the farmer accepted the low price of their
products and in some cases it was even below the MSP.[11]
The farming people may be
interested more in sales of their products more willingly than shipping them
out by sell it to the large private partners.
Sec.6 of Farmers act offers that
every purchase made outside the ground of the APMC is exempted from market
cessations, fine or levy. It is meant to allow trading people to purchase
agricultural products outside the grounds of the mandis. These advantages, on
the other hand, wouldn’t alter the power arrangement, since they only
damagingly effect the collective bargaining power of farmers.
Agricultural Reform and Indian Economic condition
In India, 80 percent of the
citizens working in unorganized sectors, in which agriculture also come,
Farmers laws have been very successful in USA as the agricultural segment is
very grown there. In India, apart from for the manufacturing, which are the
bottom price, every productions are made in shortage because the
production costs are very high and the
market prices are unsure.
Agricultural reforms in India are
alters made to the agricultural industry of the economy of India. This reform
has been executed over the years in an effort to progress production, effectiveness,
and market entry. These reforms have also been targeted at identifying societal
and ecological concern.
How winning the open economy would
be in the agriculture industry because of the low purchase power of Indian
people is the subject of substantial revisions. Indian community struggles all
through life to accomplish only essential facilities and its profits are very
low, hence how would it accept the open economic systems in farming industry is
the subject to consider about.[12]
e-Mandi
e-Mandi is a website which would
permit the people to purchase produce effortlessly and also keep privacy among
the farmers and use. It also assists users to purchase vegetable and fruits at
its reasonable price. It offers well-defined interface which assists the buyers
to browse throughout different agricultural products obtainable simply.
e-Mandis has an important role to empower the
farmers and has assisted create an
ecosystem that offers them with the liberty to sell their products, have
multiple trading option, obtain remunerative price and a valuable risk free
agricultural marketplace. The majority of farmers have been sorrowful with the
existing selling system of Indian mandis and e-Mandis is the good option to
eradicate the present irregularities of mandis in India.[13]
Conclusion
To conclude, the Farm Act boost
farmer selections, have the prospective to augment income, lessen price
uncertainty and risk, for every farmer. They absolutely deserve an opportunity.
Briefly, these three policy reform
undertaken by the Union government through the these new laws are along with
the transforming times and needs of farmer. If they are executed in the correct
spirit, they will take farming in India to new height and guide in the
transformation of the rural financial system. The agricultural reform has
created hopefulness for India to become an international power in farming and a
motivation for international food delivery. These reforms take the seed for
prosperity of farmers and alteration of the rural economic system and to make
it the growth engine of the Indian market and economy.
The agricultural reforms would
open up various private sector mandis which are far more efficient, automated
and mechanised, opposition to the reforms seem politically motivated focused at
maintaining India backward and its farmers deprived, this new reform would
cause a spate in the formation of Farmer producer organizations, the section 8
firms will provide small farmers the instruments to battle in an ever
transforming business setting.
Policy recommendations
To create trust amongst farmers
and the states will be to comprise an authorization for MSP, as suggested by
Swaminathan Committees, in the ambit of the bills. The other would be to plug
the holes in the existing system instead of trying to dismantle and bring in
the new structures.
The central government also
requires to make it obligatory for organizations to draft written contract in
vernacular languages and do away with oral agreements. It might also be
essential to de clutter the complexity surrounding exports and imports of
agricultural products, as per the reforms.
The farming industry could also
advantage very much if the reforms attain synchronization with provisions
associated to SHGs and farmer producer firms to incentivize collective, focused
particularly at marginal and rural and small holding farmer.
The too much subsidies have
neither grown the revenues of farmers nor strengthened agriculture output. The
declining land sizes, bad agricultural infrastructures, poor supply chain
networks and decreasing water table, rising heatflation because of climate
changes are all are going to make matter worse for the farmer and Indian
agriculture in the future. Therefore, creating the competence and capabilities
of farmer is the requirement of the hour and by liberalizing the farming
industry many of these problems can be identified.
Government
authorities and NGOs must work together to execute the similar by manner of
educational campaign. These agencies also require to focus towards finding as
well as giving proper solutions to settle various issues as confronted by
Indian farmers. The Agricultural Department must be more sincere to identify
these practical problems and correct monitoring over the same.
References
Girish and Kritika, Reforms in the agricultural sector, Bar and
Bench, 2020
Atul and Shyam, Reforms in
Agriculture: Promise and Challenges, National Security (2020)
Kaushik, India's farm laws are a
global problem, Brookings, 2021
Kaushik and Thaker N, Farm acts:
Are the reforms necessary? ForbesIndia, 2020
Akanksha Gupta, How can the
government revive agricultural reforms? Hindustan Times, 2022
Farm Reform Laws 2020
https://news.cleartax.in/farm-reform-laws-2020/5560/
Ali, Shahnawaz (2020) Title
Constitutional Validity of Farm Act 2020, Research Paper (2020)
Prachi Gupta, The Constitutional
Validity of the Agricultural Laws, 2020, IJLSI (2020)
Nikhi, A discourse on the new
agriculture laws for farmers, Ipleaders (2021)
Shantanu, Economic Reforms and
Agricultural Growth in India, EPW, 2019
Mark Tully, E-mandis can work but
many pitfalls remain, The Hindustan Times, 2018
What was Behind the Indian Farmers’ Protests?
https://www.cips-cepi.ca/2022/03/28/what-was-behind-the-indian-farmers-protests/
New Farm Act, https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-02/NewFarmActs2020.pdf
[1] Girish and Kritika, Reforms in the agricultural sector, Bar and
Bench, 2020
[2] Atul and Shyam, Reforms in Agriculture:
Promise and Challenges, National Security (2020)
[3] Kaushik,
India's farm laws are a global problem, Brookings, 2021
[4] Kaushik and
Thaker N, Farm acts: Are the reforms necessary? ForbesIndia, 2020
[5] Akanksha
Gupta, How can the government revive agricultural reforms? Hindustan Times,
2022
[6] Farm Reform Laws 2020
https://news.cleartax.in/farm-reform-laws-2020/5560/
[7] Ali, Shahnawaz (2020) Title Constitutional
Validity of Farm Act 2020, Research Paper (2020)
[8] (1983) 4 SCC 45
[9] Prachi Gupta, The Constitutional Validity of
the Agricultural Laws, 2020, IJLSI (2020)
[10] 2021 SCC OnLine SC 18
[11] Nikhi, A discourse on the new agriculture laws
for farmers, Ipleaders (2021)
[12] Shantanu, Economic Reforms and Agricultural
Growth in India, EPW, 2019
[13] Mark Tully, E-mandis can work but many
pitfalls remain, The Hindustan Times, 2018
Article Information
UNDERSTANDING AGRICULTURAL LAW AND REFORMS IN INDIA
Authors: NIVEDITA DIMRI
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/04/27
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Access Open Access
- License CC 4.0
All research articles published in International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis are open access and available to read, download and share, subject to proper citation of the original work.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis.