Farmers Movement Archive

Bihar junked APMC Act in '06, but it hasn't benefited farmers

Bihar's farmers got the 'freedom of choices' in selling their produce 14 years ago with the scrapping of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act in the state in 2006, but that has not yielded better prices for them, an analysis of price trends before and after the scrapping of the Act shows. The gap between farm harvest prices and MSP for three major crops - paddy, wheat and maize - has either widened or remained at the same level. What's more, it appears that low harvest prices have caused agricultural wages in Bihar to remain suppressed as compared to Punjab and Haryana and resulted in labour migration from the state. The analysis of farm harvest prices and MSP for wheat in Bihar from 1998-99 to 2016-17 shows that for nine harvest seasons from 1998-99 to 2006-07, the harvest price remained above MSP in three, from 90% to 100% of MSP in three, and below 90% of MSP in three. During the same period, the prices in Punjab remained above MSP in three seasons and 90% or more of MSP in the remaining six seasons. In Haryana, the prices remained above MSP in five seasons and 90% or more of MSP in the remaining four. Read Also'How new laws will help farmers, make agri competitive'The Centre sees the new farm laws as much-needed reforms to make agriculture competitive, improve investments and provide options to farmers.Farm harvest prices collated by the agriculture ministry are averages of wholesale prices at which the farmer sells to the trader at the village site. Follow TOI's live blog for latest updates on farmers protestIn the ten marketing seasons between 2007-08 and 2016-17 (the latest data available), not a single season saw prices in Bihar go beyond MSP. Prices remained 90% or more of MSP in four seasons and fell even below that level in the remaining six. In Punjab, on the other hand, there were two seasons when prices went beyond MSP, while only one saw them fall below 90% of MSP. Similarly, for seven seasons during this period, farmers in Haryana sold wheat at higher prices than MSP, while two seasons saw prices at between 90% and 100% of. Data was not available for one marketing season in Haryana. The trends are in harvest prices for paddy. Paddy is cultivated in both autumn and winter in Bihar and the higher of the two prices is taken for this analysis. Haryana is excluded from this comparison because the cultivation of high-quality rice in the state has pushed farm harvest prices to a much higher level than the MSP. In Bihar, in the nine harvest seasons between 1998-99 and 2016-17, only one saw prices nearly on a par with MSP (99.5% of MSP), for three prices were within 80-90% of MSP and for the remaining five farmers got 70-80% of MSP. In the ten seasons between 2007-08 and 2016-17 after APMC act was abolished, prices were within 70-80% of MSP in three and between 80-90% of MSP in the remaining six. This raises questions about the claim that farmers are trapped in the MSP and APMC mandis system and opening up the market leads to corporates and private buyers giving higher prices. It also helps explain the farmer anguish over uncertainty of MSP and distrust of 'free markets'. In Punjab, for the 16 marketing seasons for which data is available since 1998-99, the paddy harvest price fell below MSP (96.6%) only once and remained higher than the MSP in the rest. The patterns hold even in maize which unlike paddy and wheat doesn't have government procurement and is sold mostly to private buyers. In the nine seasons before the abolition of the APMC act, there were two when maize was sold higher than MSP in Bihar. In the ten seasons after abolishing the mandis, again only two saw prices go beyond MSP. For the last four seasons, it has remained below 90% of MSP. In contrast, farmers in Punjab sold maize above MSP in 14 of the 18 seasons for which price data is available. Prices fell below MSP only four times but remained between 90% and 100% of it. In Haryana, prices never fell below MSP. Data on average daily wages of male ploughman or field Labour (data for female labour was not available for all the years) between 2005-06 and 2017-18 shows that the lower price of output might have suppressed agricultural wages in Bihar. In 2006-07, the average wage in Bihar was 79% of wages in Punjab and 66.8% of wages in Haryana. Today, farm labour in Bihar earns 61% of what it could in Punjab and 50-60% of wages in Haryana, the latest figure being 59.1%.

The Times of India

2021-01-03

India