While conceding that the Indian agriculture system is wrought with issues such as fragmented holding and low productivity among others, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lawrencedale Agro Processing (LEAF), Palat Vijayaraghavan, said, “The new farm bills will definitely bring in a change in the life of the farmer, for the better. But for this to happen, every stakeholder in the supply chain should act responsibly and ensure transparency.”

Push to corporates

The farm Bills will give impetus to many corporates, particularly those that look to directly engage with farmers. Such corporates should therefore take on the responsibility of ensuring that they take all the stakeholders forward, and ensure that the tide rises for all in a village economy.

“The pure success of LEAF during the past decade has been on this premise; it is time for all of us to work towards a better life for the millions of farmers,” Vijayaraghavan said.

“Mandis are an extremely important cog in the wheel of the agriculture supply chain. A majority of farmers depend on this platform to liquidate their harvest. There are multiple intermediaries between the farmer and the end consumer.

“But the new Bill empowers the farmer to sell directly to the buyer — be it a kirana store or a large corporate, without going to the mandi or intermediary.

Mandi will exist

“This does not mean that the mandi or intermediary is being banned and will vanish overnight,” the LEAF CEO explained, adding, “be it mandi operators or intermediaries, they should ensure transparency, regularise and play a positive role. Instead of keeping the farmer in his clutches, the intermediary should bring the farmer and buyer to the price negotiating table, as reaching out to various individual farmers could be a tall task for the buyer,” he said

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