KOCHI: The Centre and state government seem to be on collision course on the draft contract farming and services law, approved by the BJP-led NDA government early last week. Kerala Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar told Express several provisions in the new draft law were against farmers and alleged the law was framed to suit the multinational corporations (MNCs) and big Indian corporate houses. “We don’t think the new contract farming law would help farmers in the state.
We suspect it to give full control of our farmlands, produce and seeds to MNCs and private corporations,” said Sunil Kumar. The draft Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (promotion and facilitation) Act 2018 approved by the Centre last Tuesday in Delhi called for the setting up of an independent agency in states to promote contract farming, registering and recording agreements between buyers and sellers.
It specifies damages in case of contravention or violation of terms of contract by both parties. Kerala did not participate in the meeting in Delhi to approve the draft law while agriculture ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Puducherry attended the meeting.
“We told the Centre that it’s very difficult to attend the meeting at a very short notice,” Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar said, adding that if Kerala had attended, it would give an impression that the state was agreeing to all the proposals.He said he has submitted a separate plan detailing the state’s requirements to the Chief Minister for his approval. “The Chief Minister will study it and take a decision based on what’s good for the state and our farmers,” he said. The minister pointed out that agriculture was a state subject, and the Centre cannot steamroll the state government to accept its policies.
“In Kerala, our farmers own small holdings, say 1 acre to 5 acre. Under the proposed new law, the MNCs or big corporate houses are looking to buy the entire produce from large tracts of lands, say 50,000 acres of kole fields in Thrissur alone. They can violate the contract at any moment citing any reason and leave the farmers in dire straits,” he explained. The new policy would give MNCs and private corporations full domination over our farms, seeds, fertilisers, etc, he said.
Kerala Agriculture University research director P Indiradevi echoed Sunil Kumar’s concerns.
“Farming is a sector which receives a lot of state patronage in Kerala and any agreement with private parties will be viewed with suspicion,” she said, pointing out that Kudumbashree is cultivating in 55,000 hectares of land, which has the trust of the people even without any legal framework. “This is a beautiful model not visible in any other states,” she said.
The draft law seeks to set up a grievance redressal mechanism in districts to address violation of contract terms. However, Indiradevi pointed out that any dispute resolution between farmers and a big corporate entity is “not a battle between equals”.“The law allows an agreement between the farmers and a private concern (MNC/private corporate houses) to supply a fixed quantity of produce at a pre-fixed time period in future. However, the corporate entity can always violate the agreement citing some reason or the other such as pesticide content in the commodity, if the market prices are much lower than the agreed price,” said Indiradevi.