Silent majority of farmers supported Farm Laws: Supreme Court-appointed Committee [READ REPORT]

The March 2021 report of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee formed to ascertain feedback on the now repealed Farm Laws made some key recommendations towards the agricultural marketing situation in the country. .The recently publicised report, prepared by agricultural economists Pramod Joshi and Ashok Gulati and Shetkari Sangathan leader Anil Ghanwat, stated at the outset that the Committee's deliberations made it clear that a silent majority of farmers and other stakeholders supported the Farm Laws. "The four-pronged strategy that the Committee adopted during its deliberations makes it evident that a majority of the farmers and other stakeholders support the Farm Laws...The bilateral interactions of the Committee with the stakeholders demonstrated that only 13.3 percent of the stakeholders were not in favour of the three Farm Laws. Around 85.7 percent of the Farmer Organizations, representing more than 3.3 crore farmers, supported the laws," the report said..The feedback received by the Committee through its online portal established that one-third of the respondents did not support the Farm Laws and around two-thirds of the respondents were in favour of the Farm Laws. The feedback received through e-mails also shows that a majority support the Farm Laws, the report added..Around 85.7 percent of the Farmer Organizations, representing more than 3.3 crore farmers, supported the laws.Supreme Court Committee report.The report gave specific recommendations towards implementing the now repealed Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act."The analysis of the Committee recognizes that the Acts intend to develop competitive agricultural markets, reduce transaction costs, and increase the farmer's share in the realized price of an agri-produce. The feedback received by the Committee, also, brought out diverse views and uggestions for modifications in the Acts," it was stated.Its broad recommendations towards studying the three legislations in the backdrop of the farmers protests and the Supreme Court staying the laws and appointing the Committee, have been summarised as under:.(i) A repeal or a long suspension of these Farm Laws would be unfair to the 'silent' majority who support the Farm Laws.(ii) States may be allowed some flexibility in implementation and design of the laws, with the prior approval of the Centre, so that the basic spirit of these laws for promoting effective competition in agricultural markets and creation of ‘one nation, one market’ is not violated.(iii) Alternative mechanisms for dispute settlement, via civil courts or arbitration mechanism, may be provided to the stakeholders.(iv) The government should take urgent steps towards strengthening agricultural infrastructure, enabling aggregation, assaying and quality sorting of agri produce through cooperatives and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), and closer interaction between farmers and warehouses/processors/exporters/retailers/bulk buyers.(v) An Agriculture Marketing Council, under the chairpersonship of the Union Minister of Agriculture, with all States and UTs as members, may be formed on lines of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to reinforce cooperative efforts to monitor and streamline the implementation of these Acts.(vi) A large-scale communication exercise needs to be taken up by the government to alleviate the apprehensions, doubts, and concerns of rest of stakeholders..A repeal or a long suspension of these Farm Laws would be unfair to the 'silent' majority who support the Farm Laws.Supreme Court committee.Protesting farm unions did not participate.Pertinently, the report stated that the protesting farmer unions did not participate in the preparation of the report. The Committee noted that the these bodies did not join the consultation process despite being invited. "The agitating farmers' organizations at the periphery of Delhi did not join the discussions with the Committee despite repeated invites sent to them. The Committee was informed that the organizations were not willing to present before the Committee and preferred bilateral discussions with the Government. The Committee respects their decision of not participating in its deliberations," the report stated. While formulating the final recommendations, however, the view of the unions as gathered from media reports and their interactions with the government were kept in mind by the Committee, the report said..Recommendations of the Committee.Taking note of depleting groundwater levels, the needs to diversify crop yields around Punjab and the increasing arrears of sugarcane payments, the Committee made the following recommendations, among others:The Minimum Support Price (MSP) and procurement support policy, as was designed for cereals during the Green Revolution time, needs to be revisited.For wheat and rice, there has to be a cap on procurement which is commensurate to the needs of the Public Distribution System (PDS).Procurement of crops at a declared MSP can be the prerogative of the States as per their specific agricultural policy priorities.A concrete road map for gradual diversification from paddy to more sustainable high-value crops, especially in the Punjab-Haryana belt, needs to be formulated with adequate budgetary resources jointly by the Central government and the respective state governments..Graphical representation of feedback received on Farm Laws.The report shared the following charts depicting how the questions posed to the farmers and organisations it met across states, were answered..On January 12, 2021, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three Farm Laws. It had also ordered the formation of a Committee to hear all parties and stakeholders, and submit a report to the Court on the same. The Committee had, subsequently, submitted its report in March.Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government's decision to withdraw the three contentious farm laws in a special address to the nation on November 19, 2021. Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh who had been protesting outside the Delhi borders for more than a year, had then withdrawn their agitation..The Farm Laws Repeal Act, 2021 received Presidential assent on November 30. A day before that, both houses of Parliament had passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, tabled by Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Tomar..[Read report].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.