‘New farm laws need improvement’

Nagpur, Aug 19 (PTI):
The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Thursday said the outfit will stage a nationwide agitation on September 8 to press for ‘remunerative price’ to farmers for their produce to cover their production cost and called for “improvement” in the Centre’s new agri laws that are facing opposition from a section of cultivators.
The farmer body said the Central government should either bring a new legislation or make changes in the agri-marketing laws enacted last year to add a provision for payment of minimum support price (MSP) for major farm produce.
Top BKS functionary Dinesh Kulkarni, addressing a press conference here, said farmers should get ‘remunerative price’ for their produce to cover their cost of production, which they are not getting in the existing system.
“Remunerative price is cost of production plus profit – that is what we demanding. Remunerative price is the right of farmers, which should be facilitated by the government,” said Kulkarni, the BKS’s Akhil Bharatiya Sanghatan Mantri (national organising general secretary).
“The MSP announced by the government today is not a remunerative price. However, even if it is not doing that it should at least give the MSP it is announcing and make a law for the same,” he said. Kulkarni said the three new farm laws do not have any clause about ensuring MSP or remunerative price for agricultural commodities.
“The government should ensure this remunerative price in the present farm laws or make a separate legislation for the same. The government should make guidelines in respect of contract farming wherein crops are not purchased below MSP. This should be at least implemented for the 23 crops that are currently under the MSP regime,” he said.
Asked about his views on the Centre’s new agri-marketing laws, against which farmers are protesting for the last ten months, Kulkarni told PTI that they need “some improvement”. “For example, there should be an agriculture court (to tackle disputes).
Similarly, (private) traders coming into the farm sector should be registered and should give bank security. Thirdly, there is a huge flaw in respect to (changes) in the Essential Commodities Act as far as consumers are concerned,” he said.
The government, in order to promote business, has given huge exemption to big companies, allowing them to stock some commodities as much as they want and this needs to corrected, the BKS leader said.