Liberating the farmer

At long last, Punjab’s farmers can hope to be rid of the vice-like exploitative grip of the commission agents. Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has come to the farmers’ aid. In a censorious letter, Paswan has pulled up the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, for the delay in ensuring direct payment to farmers’ bank accounts for crops procured under the minimum support price. This lapse by the CM, despite assurances, is particularly glaring in the light of some states having already done away with the middlemen and shifting to online procurement and transfer of money. Efforts of the government towards easing the farmers’ plight have been soft, betraying the clout that the arhtiyas wield as they are a key source of political funding. 

The policies have been skewed towards the moneylenders: the agents prospered as their rates of commission increased from 1.5 per cent fixed on the basis of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961, to 2.5 per cent in 1998; putting the farmer at their mercy, they have been extending loans to him only after taking blank cheques and his passbook; worse, with no check on the interest rates charged, the farmer’s back is further broken as he is forced to cough up a usurious 12 to 24 per cent compound rate. The farmers’ debt owed to the arhtiyas is more than Rs 20,000 crore. But it has not figured in the government’s loan waiver schemes.

Drastic steps emanating from a strong political will are needed to liberate the susceptible cultivator from the clutches of such unscrupulous practices. In this age of online transactions, there is no room for middlemen. The procuring agencies should source the produce directly from the farmgate, scrapping the commission agents. Stopping the erosion of the producer’s income would ultimately benefit the consumer. This arhtiya-peasant story has a resonance across Haryana, too. Paswan would do well to also question the BJP-ruled neighbouring state in this regard.