India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers in Delhi

Re:India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers i... by xrisk on Sunday January 31, 2021 @02:54AM (#25977011)

> There was monopolies of mandis(farmer are restricted only to sell here) now government allows them to make contract or sell anywhere.

This is factually incorrect [1]. Only about 30% [2] of produce is sold in mandis.

Any anti-mandi law is essentially an anti-farmer law; because mandis act as a safety net for farmers. No farmer can negotiate good deals with big corp, and once the buyer side is monopolized (ala Jio); the farmer is forced into bad contracts. What the government should do is implement mandi reforms.

[1]: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/can-free-trade-...

[2]: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/agriculture/by-pushing-f...

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Re:India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers i... by sbmthakur on Sunday January 31, 2021 @04:01AM (#25977289)

This is assuming that Mandis work as expected which is not always true. In reality, there is corruption and gaming the system. While these laws to incentivise alternative markets, they do not abolish Mandis.

https://finshots.in/archive/agriculture-will-never-be-the-sa...

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Re:India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers i... by xrisk on Sunday January 31, 2021 @04:18AM (#25977368)

I never claimed that they always work as expected. That is not an excuse to do away with them.

As for the shtick that they will not abolish mandis, that is already demonstrably untrue [1]. It is trivial to observe that big corp will utterly destroy them and then coerce farmers into bad contracts when they have no alternative.

As for your argument that the "free market" will improve the situation, for the record, it has been done before and has miserably failed. [2]

For posterity, I would recommend that you don't cite sources that are essentially blog posts with zero data or theory. I might as well cite the Communist Manifesto then. There is actual serious work on this matter.

[1]: https://www.newsclick.in/Fallout-Farm-Laws-New-Laws-Paralyse...

[2]: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/bihar-scrapp...

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Re:India protests: Internet cut to hunger-striking farmers i... by sbmthakur on Sunday January 31, 2021 @10:32AM (#25979510)

The scenarios you cited may show that private Mandis are bad at protecting farmers but they do not involve big corps who have the capital to build storage facilities and facilitate farmers with farm related activities. So how did you conclude "big corp" will destroy farmers with this laws?

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