BLOG: Farmers’ agitation, the real problem and the solution

Hello Everyone!

It looks like farmers in India are currently agitating against the new acts related to agriculture. But a closer look reveals that for many in the movement, the real controversy is not over why the laws were enacted, but over whom did they ask before making these laws. Such an opposition is inevitable when the rulers are hell bent on taking credit for every damn thing. The desire to carve a name in history has been with man for many centuries, and the remnants of many of the victory columns of the past have been buried deep underground.

The usefulness of these laws can be gauged from the situation of farmers in Kerala where APMC laws do not exist or in Bihar where those laws were repealed 14-15 years ago. Also, in the state like Maharashtra the vegetables have been deregulated long back and it has made zero impact on the APMC system. This is because it is not an easy task for anyone to make farmers and consumers leave such a system like APMC and get them on a new platform. This can only be achieved by building better alternatives and earning people's trust through sustained efforts. This means that the new open system is more likely to benefit farmers. However, the concept of a national agricultural market and the use of technology by these various reforms seem to be superficial, albeit chronological.

Initiatives like eNAM of the Center or ReMS already implemented in Karnataka have not been able to solve the major problems in the sale of agricultural commodities. Two of the main reasons behind this are - (1) the fear of the states of losing their control over an important subject like agriculture produce marketing, and (2) the governments not being skilled in creating useful technology and running a business (it should not even be the job of the government).

The concept of a national market is not particularly useful for perishable goods. It would not be wise to increase the distance between buyers and sellers while we are already compromising quality and losing 40% of the farm produce (according to a UN report) before reaching to the consumer. On the contrary we must focus on fulfilling requirements locally. If we consider what usually happens when we implement eCommerce on national level, we would realize that national agriculture market may lead to some issues. While offering more options of buyers to the farmers won’t it also offer more options of farmers to the buyers thereby impact local farmers? Will fraud and confusion increase? Will there be undue burden on the consumers? Will there be more difficulties for the farmers to compete at the national level when the cost of production varies in different places? Consideration must be given to whether intermediaries will benefit more than farmers and consumers? Whether substandard imported goods will increase competition with local fresh goods? And whether all of this will have a detrimental effect on agribusiness and human health?

Changes will happen sooner or later, but the lack of a comprehensive and inclusive approach to doing so is unaffordable. eCommerce cannot be successful just by creating an app at the Center’s level and forcing everyone to install it. Further, selling groceries or farm produce online is more complicated than other product categories. eCommerce is a special subject in IT and "farm produce eCommerce" is a very special subject in eCommerce. Also wholesale and retail are two different things. It is also important for farmers in India to be able to use it easily. There is no readymade technology or any academic course available for this subject. Therefore, the superficial application of technology increases the complexity rather than solving the problem. These problems can be solved by using the potential and energy of entrepreneurs who are interested in working in specific fields. Today many startups are innovating in the fields of - eCommerce, artificial intelligence, technology to check the quality of agricultural produce, transportation of goods, etc. But many have found that it is not as easy and profitable for a startup to set up on its own a system of trading of farm produce.

Instead of wasting time fighting with the Center, states should come up with solutions with the help of startups like MileStores, who have been researching and experimenting in this field for several years. It can also generate thousands of crores of revenue for the states. Farmers, traders, consumers can all benefit. It can also normalize contract farming. At the same time, the resulting live data will automatically reduce the gap between production and demand. All in all, technology can solve the old and complex problems before us, what we need is the right approach!

Thank you!