Grassroots issues first, laws of the land later
Unlike north India, why has Maharashtra not seen any major farmers’ protests, except in a few pockets like Nashik and Kolhapur and a march in Mumbai? Are the farmers in the state in favour of the Centre’s new farm laws or are they indifferent to the issue
PUNE/NASHIK/YAVATMAL: Amid the farmers’ protests in north India against the Centre’s new agriculture laws, HT’S visit to the interiors of Maharashtra revealed a large number of farmers are not fully aware of the legislation. Neither the Centre nor the ruling parties in Maharashtra, which are the Opposition for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, have educated them.
Maharashtra has 15.3 million farmers cultivating 19.77 million hectares, as per the decadal census held in 2015-16. Paddy, jowar, cotton, sugarcane, soyabean as well as pulses like tur and gram are the prominent crops. The state has 175 cooperative and 72 private sugar factories. The Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) Act, 2003, adopted in 2006, has been allowing farmers to sell their produce either at APMC markets or to private traders. Also, contract farming is already in practice in Maharashtra.
In areas like Pune and Nashik, where farmers grow vegetables and fruits like grapes and pomegranate, private buyers offer more prices than the APMC markets or mandis. Due to the presence of the APMCS, the farmers can bargain with private traders. Traders who buy outside APMC have a little more than one fourth of the turnover compared to APMCS. The alternative system has annual turnover of ₹13,000 crore, while the turnover of APMCS is ₹48,000 crore.
Contract farming has not succeeded much, but a few firms such as Baramati Agro have been working with farmers for quite some time. In Nashik, grape farmers have tied up with wine producers and it is working well, say the farmers. “The highly institutionalized cooperative sector engaged in sugar sector along with farmers owned firms involved in purchasing agriculture produce have largely kept the farmers assured about rates,” said Rohit Pawar, an Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator and party chief Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew who himself is engaged in contract farming.
His grandfather Appasaheb Pawar, started Baramati Agro, a company involved in contract farming in Pune. “We have safeguarded their interests, but big companies may not do so.”
Sugarcane farmers have a relatively better system in place due to cooperative sugar factories who assure them minimum support price and provide them other infrastructure. In case of cotton, farmers often sell their produce to private traders, even before they cut their harvest. Unlike north India, western Maharashtra farmers have been taking multiple crops on small land, ensuring money.
However, farmers in several areas have local problems that they say are bigger than the farm laws. In north Maharashtra’s tribal belt, farmers are struggling for ownership with forest department. Vidarbha farmers struggle for a livelihood, amid mounting debts. Farm expert Girdhar Patil said, “Procurement system in Maharashtra is entirely different than in Punjab and Haryana. Barring a few, other goods are not sold on MSP. Farmers are divided into groups depending on the crops they take. The farmers with huge landholding and better irrigation grow cash crops and enjoy political patronage. They would not resort to sit-ins for months. Marginal farmers can’t think of any such protests.”
In north Maharashtra, the farmers are divided. Those who have well-irrigated land and are benefitted due to cultivation of grapes and vegetables are doing better than their counterparts in other areas, especially the tribal belt. “New farm laws will hardly have any impact on Maharashtra,” said Vilas Shinde, Managing Director, Sahyadri farms, a farm producer company of small farmers in north Maharashtra. “We have grape farmers in Nashik who have inked contracts with the wine making companies. Such practices have been there in Maharashtra for years.”
Santosh Take, an ex-sarpanch, who interacted with PM Modi during the ‘charcha’ in Yavatmal ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections, insists farmers must get remunerative prices of their produce. “We have both—the open market and mandi—but farmers hardly get the minimum support price as private parties purchase the produce from the needy farmers at throwaway prices.”
The Congress has been opposing the farm laws. Shivajirao Moghe, working president of Maharashtra Congress and former minister, said there would be a monopoly for essential commodities, if the government allows corporate farming. “Partial corporate farming and private trading has failed in the state and the government should refrain from making laws supporting them.”