Explained: How Changes in Agri-Produce Trade Laws Will Turn Hunger into Profit-Making Business -Subodh Varma

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published Published on Jun 7, 2020   modified Modified on Jun 9, 2020

-Newsclick.in

And yet, it is being tom-tommed as ‘freedom’ for farmers and ‘self-reliance’ for country!

Silently, and in double quick time, changes in laws related to cultivation, sale, stocking and pricing of agricultural produce – food grain, vegetables, etc. – have been proposed and disposed by the Narendra Modi government. Three ordinances relating to these key dimensions were given Presidential assent late on June 5 night, and they came into force “at once”. These were put on the table only last month by the finance minister as part of the so-called stimulus and cleared by the Cabinet only a couple of days ago.

There has been much jubilation in the mainstream media over these far- reaching policy changes, while most political parties, barring the Left, have been silent. It appears as if the government’s propaganda that these will allow farmers to sell their produce “anywhere” and “get best prices”, and that this will lead to all round prosperity, has been swallowed unquestioningly by most middle class.

As far as the farmers themselves are concerned, virtually all their organisations have opposed these wholesale changes. Cunningly brought in when the COVID-19 pandemic is raging in India and people are fighting for their lives, these changes will decisively hand over agricultural production and trade to big companies and traders, and thus, present an imminent danger to food security in a country that has about 200 million hungry people.

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Newsclick.in, 7 June, 2020, https://www.newsclick.in/Explained-Changes-Agri-Produce-Trade-Laws-Turn-Hunger-Profit-Making-Business


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