THE FARMERS, THE THREE ACTS AND THE WAY FORWARD

There are major reasons for the current situation of farmers; Lack of unity among them and selfishness of their leaders. Farmers 'and farm workers' unions, with the exception of a few, have been one of the major reasons for the denial of farmers and farm labourers rights because till date their mode has been agitation only based on the reactions to  government actions harming their interests whereas they should be actually be backed by research,study and data based  memorandum of demands for changes both in short and long terms policies.

As  farming is one activity which brings together many agencies together having inter dependency  therefore they  need advise and focus from many fields . But  so far the farmer unions have not been able to move in this direction at all and largely their agendas  have been narrow ended barring the present agitation for which they have received support from large sections of society especially youth. 

Now they need to focus in their new agenda of demands under which the percieved harm from the three farm acts is removed and new alternatives which ensure farmer friendly policies are proposed and accepted by the government at the center.

 And from the state governments which claims to be farmer friendly they need to put up and get addressed the following atleast immediately.

 So far the unions have not done anything  to get a Debt Readdressal Forum for the debt ridden farmers especially Arhatiya Debt - despite this being the leading cause of agricultural suicides.

To date, no farmer organization has demanded a just Debt settlement system based on the Sir Chhotu Ram Acts of 1930 and 1934.

No Kisan Union has ever called for compensation for electricity to 1.5 to 2 lakh small and marginal farmers nor has it ever made any demand for farmers who do not have electricity connection or do not have the financial situation to take it. (Although offered by PSPCL under the Tatkal scheme which costed around ₹2.25 lac) and are forced to run diesel pump sets or buy water from a farmer who gets free electricity.

Now coming to the charter of demands  till date  there has been little contact and connect between the agricultural unions and the Punjab agricultural economists both retired and serving in various universities. Few reasons are that most of them are not considered  farmer friendly, table bound researchers, not connected to ground and are seen by the farmers as a mouth pieces of the government or of the university management.

On the other hand the belief of agricultural economists about farm unions  is that they don't listen to them, don't follow diversification, follow wheat paddy cycle despite  crisis of water for irrigation as a resource, take unviable farm loans and then  splurge these on luxuries and marriages, buying tractors and fitting them with expensive music systems when actually they could bought a low hp tractor or could have hired one as per their land holding or acreage they till.

Economists also believe that most Kisan Union leader leaving aside a few have actually been trying to find a secure future for themselves or their wards being part of ruling alliances of all colours and hue.

 The Reality

Farmers actually  need to have a very solid backing from an honest think tank of Agriculture economists, legal luminaries, experienced farm scientists to advise ,guide and be part of the negotiations when cleverest of bureaucracy talks on government behalf

 Now coming to the government- the democratic majority will continue to be misused if it suits the policy of any particular ruling party.

 But despite this   It's not all over for farmers so what  are the solution for all their problems?