Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers demand withdrawal of farm Bills

Members of the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Pathukappu Sangam staged a protest near Jalagandapuram here on Sunday demanding withdrawal of the recently proposed Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmer (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill. They said the Bills were anti-farmer and demanded the Centre to withdraw them. They also expressed solidarity with the farmers protesting against the farm Bills in Punjab and Haryana. Coimbatore Special Correspondent adds: Palat Vijayaraghavan, founder and CEO of the Nilgiris-based Lawrencedale Agro Processing (LEAF), said in a press release that the Indian agriculture system is traditionally caught in the problems of low productivity. The three Bills related to agriculture sector deal with the aspect of mandis, the multiple intermediaries and increased leverage of corporates. The Bills aim to empower the farmers to directly sell to the buyers without going through the mandi or the intermediary. It will bring in transparency and responsibility to the mandi operators. The intermediaries are an all-encompassing strong stake holder in the agriculture sector. They bring in demand to the farmers and to a major extent supports farmers in liquidating the harvest. LEAF has been working with multiple existing stakeholders. The new Bills will give new impetus to the many corporates who are looking to directly engage with farmers. The responsibilities lie with companies such as LEAF to ensure that they take all stakeholders forward, he said.

The Hindu

2020-09-21

Salem,TAMIL NADU