Archaic APMC Act - Apathy and Agony for Indian Farmers

Post Independence, our fore fathers were really concerned about the farmers. Agriculture was the main source of income for most of the Indians. Hence they came up with something fantastic. Instead of working towards lesser reliability on monsoons or increasing R&D in seeds, agricultural practices, pesticides etc, they came up with an APMC act.

What is APMC Act?
This is an act enacted by various state governments. It was started in the 50's to ensure that no farmers were exploited by being forced to sell their produce at less rates. APMC yards were created by govts and licenses given to only few individuals who would get a "shop" in one of these yards. The farmers were not allowed to sell their produce to anyone outside these yards. If caught, they could be jailed, fined or both! What the governments did was to not only force the farmers to sell at whatever rates these middlemen wanted but also bear the cost of transportation, damages and the middleman will decide the quality of produce.

What this did?

Real example 1: A licensed vendor in Azadpur Mandi, Delhi wanted to give up his license since he had gotten old, made enough money and both kids were in USA. His "shop" was one charpoy (a single cot made of a wooden frame and jute fiber) under open sky. Along with his license, his shop in Azadpur mandi was sold for a measly Rs.2 crore. That is the kind of money you make by being a middleman. Obviously at whose expense?

Real example 2: Recently while driving back from AP to Bangalore, we crossed an area where lots of tomato is grown. While crossing a village, we decided to try and purchase some for home. A farmer sneakily selling tomato near the road side gave me a huge bag for Rs.20. On later weighing, I found the bag to have 10 kg tomatoes. Running rate in retail stores in Bangalore (around 20 kms from this place) at that time was Rs.25 per Kg. Where is the huge difference in money going? And the farmer is obviously selling to these middlemen at a rate lesser than Rs.2 per kg.

Real example 3: Arhar daal or Tuur daal is a staple protein across most of the country. It is the primary ingredient in Sambar in South India. In 2015, rates doubled from Rs.100-120 per Kg to more than Rs.240 per Kg. This was attributed to production falling by around15% due to monsoons. Government went into an overdrive to control rates and hoarders were rounded up. More than 50,000 Tonnes of pulses were seized from various middlemen. No one knows how much more was actually hoarded. Prices being controlled through such hoarding activities are nothing new. Thanks to the few middlemen controlling the entire market.

Now imagine the farmers getting facilities to discover the price themselves and sell directly to open market or to whoever they want. I assure you that most of the suicides will be curbed by this simple change in the law. In addition with the irrigation policy of NDA govt which they are planning to implement, food woes of India and its farmers are gone!

Case in point: Maharashtra which has been facing a severe issue of farmer suicides has recently tried to make changes in its APMC act. Unfortunately, the real reason for why this archaic act is not changed came to the forefront as Congress and NCP immediately opposed the amendments. How will a politician make money if the money goes back to the farmers? If they die....let them :-(

NDA government is coming up with an online platform for helping farmers in this matter. While the central government cannot make laws since agriculture is a state subject, they are acting as a catalyst where the state governments can use these enablers to uplift farmers. Its now upto our states to work.

India, JNNSM Solar Mission, USA and its selfish ideals

JNNSM or Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched in 2010 by the then PM of India, Dr.Manmohan Singh to deploy 20,000 MW (yep...that many zeroes!) of grid connected solar powerby 2022. This target was revised by the NDA government in 2015 to become 100,000 MW of solar power. All the details are given here. To put things in perspective, in 2014, the entire world produced 177 GW (177,000 MW) of solar power. This is the installed capacity of solar panels across the world.

 

Given in the table below is the annual solar power production in the top 5 countries in the world as in 2014.

Data for 2014
Country	Production in GW
Germany	38.2
China	28.2
Japan	23.3
Italy	18.5
USA	18.3

  

Compared to these, India had an installed capacity of 5 GW in December, 2015. (I would love to take a dig at the UPA govt who did practically nothing to work on the grand plan except giving it a name of Gandhi parivar but that is not the intention at present). 

Government of Rajasthan has set aside 35,000 sqkm of land in the Thar Desert. This itself, if completely utilized, can generate 700 to 2100 GW of power. (that means at least 18 times the power generated by Germany at present!)

What I am doing here is just putting numbers to show the kind of capacity that we are speaking about. India can not only become the leader in this field if JNNSM is properly implemented which Modi government has already taken up seriously but we can actually change the rules of the game.

No wonder, solar cell manufacturers the world over started salivating.....but WAIT! What about the stupid clause about domestic production of critical components? Now that surely is against the rules...right? What about equality between a developed country and a developing economy which is trying to stay green? What about the many jobs that will be snatched from the jaws of the poor developed nation if all these billion dollar worth of solar panels were made cheaper?

The US President wants to double exports in the next few years. The only way that can be achieved is by reducing local manufacturing in some major economies. And when you have things like WTO in your pocket, it becomes so much more easier.

What should India do? Obviously challenge the decision. But IMHO, we should simply show the middle finger and move on. In another 2-3 years, with proper focus, we might be exporting panels to the US given the cost advantages that we get not only because of huge local demand, cheaper labor but obviously due to more modern plants. 

Lets do an America on the Americans ;-)