New Delhi: It rained all day as another session of the Kisan Sansad (farmers’ parliament) was in progress.
Even a neem tree and a canopy couldn’t keep the Sansad venue from getting drenched. But this was no deterrent for those in attendance. The topic for the day was the Contract Farming Act. The ‘House’ was full, and the ‘Sansad Well’ was flooded with rainwater.
As it continued to rain, Swarnjeet Singh, a potato farmer from Punjab, began the discussion by saying, “PepsiCo is the perfect model for contract farming. They made us buy seeds and fertilisers when the market prices crashed. Then, Pepsi said my produce didn’t meet their grade. Everything was wasted, and I couldn’t even use my potatoes as seed. If contract farming comes to India in a big way, every farmer will suffer the same fate.”
Corporate contracts from the time of the East India Company to PepsiCo have never been good for farmers. Many gathered there have personally suffered at the hands of sugar mill owners and big corporations and have been seeking justice for a long time. Most are reviled by the idea of contract farming.
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In attendance was Sardar Amar Singh who wore a teal turban and had grey curly beard. He had a lifetime of experience in farming. “In 30 years, corporations will rule our land. They are trapping us in debt, exploiting our distress. If we don’t oppose this now, nothing will be left for us in the future.”
The Kisan Sansad in progress.
Hearing this impassioned appeal, Bheem Lal, from Allahabad, rose from his seat. “Contrary to Modi’s claims, contract farming will swallow our fields. Farming contracts will force farmers to take additional loans from banks by mortgaging their lands. Next, companies will manipulate farmers by introducing grading. Most of our produce will be rejected. With diminished incomes and high debt, farmers will be trapped,” he said.
Once representatives from Uttar Pradesh had spoken, it was Bihar’s turn – a state which abolished APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committees) in 2006 and also had contract farming at some point in the past.
“Bihar has been ruined. Our incomes have halved. Companies are using the same traders to bring down prices further. We are forced to sell for low prices,” said Dinesh Singh, a farmer from Bihar.
“First they got the land ceiling and took away our land. Now they are taking the same land and selling it to companies. We know now on whose behest our land is being taken,” Rajinder Kaur, a farmer from Punjab said. Her comment resonated with those gathered at the Kisan Sansad.
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Echoing Kaur’s sentiments, Surender Kumar from Guna, Madhya Pradesh, said, “Our land is our mother, and everyone knows, we don’t auction our mother. Contract farming has failed in Madhya Pradesh massively. There are various instances, including in [Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh] Tomar’s area, where companies have entered into contracts with farmers and run away when it was time to pay.”
The Sansad didn’t only have farmers, but some scholars in attendance too. I caught up with Ankush Parocha, a PhD scholar and a farmer representative. “These laws are part of the de-peasantification process. They want companies to become big landlords once again and move all the agricultural labour to factories. Climate change, water scarcity, etc., will exacerbate this process,” he predicted with ominous certainty.
Other issues pertaining to dispute settlement, trader accountability, cartelisation, and finally, oligopoly were discussed. “Big corporates like Adani have captured Himachali apples, edible oils, and now, wheat too. Small traders are also suffering and are against corporate contracts,” said Narendra Jaiswal from Bhopal.
“The SDM [sub-divisional magistrate] and DM [district magistrate] are beyond the farmers’ reach now, and rarely can individual farmers approach them. Nevertheless, the government takes away our legal rights and makes SDM and DM the highest appellate authority against corporate injustice. This is company sarkar, not ours,” said Krishna Sharma, a farmer from Sonepat.
As discussions reached a crescendo, hot rajma-chawal was served by a local gurudwara committee, and we all ate, huddled up. After lunch, the session continued, without interruption, with speakers narrating various forms of injustice being meted out to farmers. These were stories of fraud and corporate malfeasance. The paramilitary personnel standing guard there looked intently as speakers shed light on the injustice being faced by farmers.
For the last word, I jumped across the clogged sewage and caught hold of Kisan Sansad speaker Narendra Singh, veteran politician and former agriculture minister of Bihar.
“This has a bearing on nation-wide revolution. Naturally, farmers whose livelihoods get impacted directly will vehemently oppose it, but awareness is still spreading across the country. It’s time they move beyond the free farm bills and include social justice issues too. Once peasants, Dalit people, women and other minorities join, a new kind of politics will be born in India,” he said.
It was already 5 pm and the Kisan Sansad had concluded. I turned around to leave, crossing hundreds of police personnel and walked into the soft pitter-patter of raindrops.
Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent policy analyst and writer on agriculture and environment. He was earlier director at the National Seed Association of India.