Farm Bill 2020: Let’s Understand the Pros and Cons of New Legislation

Amid the strong protests from opposition members, the Rajya Sabha has passed two of the three farm bills. Moreover, there's a huge hue and cry going on regarding this new legislation and farmers came out to the street to oppose these farm bills 2020. While on the other hand, Maharashtra and Kanpur farmers have accepted the new farm bill 2020.

There's total confusion regarding the bill among the farmers and the common public. Hence, we have analysed both sides before reaching to a conclusion.

Let's know about the farm bill 2020 in detail and what will be the pros and cons.

What is Farm Bill 2020?

The three bills that were passed by the Lok Sabha are the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.

What are the pros of Farm Bill 2020?

According to the government, the bills would transform the agriculture sector which will raise the farmers' income. It also promises to double farmers' income by 2022 and the Centre said that the Bills will make the farmer independent of government-controlled markets and fetch them a better price for their produce.

Moreover, the government said that these Bills aims to create a system in which the farmers and traders can sell their purchase outside the Mandis. It also encourages intra-state trade and this proposes to reduce the cost of transportation.

The farm bill 2020 aims to enable farmers to engage with agri-business companies, retailers, exporters for service, and sale of produce while giving the farmer access to modern technology.

It also aims to benefits the small and marginal farmers with less than five hectares of land. The Bill also will remove items such as cereals and pulses from the list of essential commodities and attract FDI.

Cons of farm bills:

The farmers say that they are apprehensive about getting Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and also concerned about the upper hand of the agri-businesses and big retailers in negotiations.

Moreover, it may lead to reduce the benefits of small farmers as companies will dictate the price.

Hence, these pros and cons are varied from one farmer to another and person to person. Analysed all the pros and cons before coming to a conclusion of supporting or opposing the farm bill 2020.