In respect of Farm Laws, farmers have a few fears –
especially in respect of,
Ø Continuity of MSP regime
Ø “ Contract Farming “ turning into “ Corporate
( owned ) Farms “
Ø “
Private Mandies “ obsoleting current APMC mandies
One ( unstated / unarticulated ) fear is :
Ø Adatiyas
( middlemen ) losing their business
Why was this ( fear ) never mentioned by the farmers ?
Simple. That would have revealed the “ hidden agenda “ and become a non-starter
since the very objective
of the farm laws is to cut-out
the “ long chain of middlemen “ between the
farmers and consumers buying 4 kg of wheat at a Kirana store ( at 300 % of what farmer
sells to Adatiya ! )
Government has sent them its proposal outlining how it
proposes to dispel these fears. Govt had no need to say anything about “ reducing
“ the role of the middlemen ( since that topic was not on the table )
Then again, total “elimination “ of middlemen from the
supply-chain ( between farmers and the end-consumers ), is just not possible .
Govt is fully aware of this
But there is a way to bring in greater “transparency“
in the “ SELL/ BUY “ process , including those “ CONTRACTS “ between the
farmers and those CORPRATE HOUSES , by modifying the existing e-NAM platform
In my following email, I had suggested introduction of
a “ CONTRACT “ section in e-NAM portal :
Selling
Farm Laws before selling Farm Crops [ 24
Sept 2020 ]
Where I suggested as follows :
“ On the existing Govt portal ( e-NAM ) , we will introduce a section
called
CONTRACT FARMING ,
where the farmers desirous of entering into contract farming
agreements,
will submit their full details ( Name / Farm Size / Location of farm
/ main
crops / past yields per acre / no of workers / family members engaged /
existing loan liabilities / water availability etc )
Companies
on look out for CONTRACT FARMING can search this database
( of c
shortlist / select potential farmers and send them their “ Purchase
Proposal “ ( by filling in an Online Standard Form ).
Central Government would have full access to these contracts
entered
Online between the parties and ensure that no contract
is entered into
below the MSP for the concerned crop . No one else can see these
contracts but the parties concerned would have a provision to EDIT these
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e-NAM portal, already has a section for REGISTRATION of “
Seller – Buyer – Commission Agent – Service Provider “ , covering all of the
data-fields mentioned above
But the process of this portal is centered around ( already
) produced crops
which are ( already ) brought
to a Mandi by ( already existing ) middlemen , for sale to ( already existing ) buyers , from lots /
heaps of grain
I believe, none of these details ( Buyer – Seller –
Middlemen – Selling Price – Crop – Quality etc ) , are entered into any CENTRAL
SERVER , and a CENTRAL DATABASE created for each and every PURCHASE
Now, we have close to 18 crore ( 180 million ) farmers –
selling their crops to ( may be ) 10 LAKH ( a million ) buyers ( middlemen ),
generating billions
of “ Buying – selling “ transactions
These transactions are not recorded in any CENTRAL
DATABASE , and transparently visible to all
If these were recorded , then we will know,
Ø WHO
sold
Ø WHAT
crop
Ø HOW
MUCH,
Ø Of WHAT
quality
Ø To WHOM
Ø WHEN
Ø At WHAT
price etc
I suggest that the Govt offer to the farmers such a
modification in e-NAM portal
All existing APMC mandies and future PRIVATE mandies
must get linked to the CENTRAL SERVER and each and every sale must be directly
and digitally , recorded online on e-NAM portal
Going further , in the proposed CONTRACT section of
e-NAM portal , parties ( Farmers and Corporate Buyers ) desirous of entering
into CONTRACT FARMING,
must be required to fill-in an online form to furnish following data :
( A ) FARMERS
# Crop ( proposed to be produced ) with estimated quantity / quality /
availability date / min. expected
( B ) CORPORATE BUYERS
# Crop ( proposed to be purchased ) with Quantity / Quality needed /
When / Max price
offered etc
e-NAM portal software will automatically carry out “ MATCH-MAKING “ between
buyers and sellers and produce SHORT-LISTS ,
every morning
Then portal will send out “ BUY
ALERTS “ to the matched farmers , and “ SELL
ALERTS “ to matched buyers , on an App
These alerts will go out every morning . All alerts can also be viewed
online on e-NAM portal by log in
From the shortlists appearing in the App, both parties can
contact ( over phone ) and carry-out further negotiations / bargaining
If negotiations / bargaining leads to some agreed upon CONCLUSION
, then both the parties will log into –NAM portal and confirm their CONTRACT
Appropriate “Transaction Tax “ should be deducted and
deposited in the account of STATE GST ( both,
the State where farmer is located and the State where the buyer is located )
This kind of “ SEARCH – DISCOVER – MATCH – ALERT - AGREE “ type of algorithms are to be found on all types
of e-commerce portals ( jobs – houses – travel – domestic goods – insurance etc
)
If millions of farmers get into such a “ Futures Trading “
type of process then employing AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) will help them
get BEST PRICES for their FUTURE / PLANNED crops
In fact , using some SEARCH feature on e-NAM portal,
farmers can even find out which crops are commanding what ( higher ) prices ,
and WHEN , and then accordingly carry out their CROP ROTATION / future planting
Full “HISTORY of TRANSACTIONS “
will be stored and made available to the concerned parties
Dear Shri
Tomarji,
I urge you to consider my suggestion and if found
suitable, then forward to KISAN UNIONS for further discussions
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com
/ 11 Dec 2020
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