Farm Laws Re-visited

Recently there was an interesting Webinar on the Farm Laws that have been repealed following protracted oppostion by many sections of farmers. The principal speaker expressed the view that government was intervening in many ways into the demand, suppy, prices, etc. in the farm sector, which would be better left to market forces and the pricing mechanism to sort out.

There were quite a number of questions put to the speaker, these broadly concerning -- (1) certain specific provisions of the Farm Laws that appeared contrary to the usual provisions for legal review; (2) whether with the imperfect knowledge about the supply and demand situation, the price mechanism would work well; (3) how would the farmers or the purchasers factor in uncertain weather conditions especially with extrme weather conditions due to Climate Change; (4) whether issues of rural indebtedness and strengthening of the rural credit network deserves due consideration; (5) whether the form of corporatization envisaged in the Farm Laws was the right way forward considering the huge numbers of small and marginal farmers in India, and so on.

The Webinar provided a useful opportunity for exchange of views on an important subject. While the principal speaker attempted to deal with these wide-ranging issues, it did seem at the end that there were a good number of unanswered questions on the Farm Laws.