Question

Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper to highlight
the problems faced by farmers due to lack of proper
awareness in rural areas and problem faced by them in
selling their grains in the market due to lockdown.

Answer 1

Answer:

Letters to the editor

Antagonising farmersOther

Sep 30, 2020

The Centre has claimed that the new farm legislation will free farmers from the arhtiyas, but has failed to explain how it will prevent the farmers from being exploited by big corporates, who have been taking over one sector after the other under NDA rule. The fight to retain the APMC, despite its shortcomings, is also a fight to extract a commitment from the government on maintaining state support to the agriculture sector. With government investment in agriculture declining in real terms, input costs rising and subsidy declining, farmers fear the withering away of their last instrument of state support of the MSP regime. Farmers’ anger is not just about restoring the primacy of the APMC mandis but also the manner in which these Bills were thrust upon them. Voices of dissent emanating from the farmers’ unions should have been heeded to by the government before hurriedly pushing these contentious Bills.

EL SINGH, by mail

Valid fears

The Bills passed in the name of agrarian reforms have led to insecurity and fear of exploitation among the farming community (‘Trust deficit’). The fears are genuine and based on bitter experience with the corporates in the past. Contract farming was tried in Punjab some three decades ago and failed miserably. I am a witness to the plight and exploitation of the poor farmers of Hoshiarpur district who entered into contract with a corporate to grow potato, chilli and tomato for the plant set up at Zahura village in Dasuya. After picking up the best produce, the corporate would leave the farmers to fend for themselves. Lack of storage facility and the perishable nature of the produce forced the farmers to dispose of surplus produce at throwaway prices that were less than even the cost of production. The farmers refuse to be cheated again and rightly so.

By Akshat Nashine