International Monetary Fund has expressed confidence over the new farm laws
Bengaluru: While the Supreme Court of India has stayed the farm laws and constituted a committee to look into the issue as farmers, predominantly from Punjab express apprehensions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed confidence over these laws.
Gerry Rice, Director of Communications at IMF said, "The measures will enable farmers to directly contract with sellers, allow farmers to retain a greater share of the surplus by reducing the role of middlemen, enhance efficiency and support rural growth."
Rice had a word on its implementation.
"And of course, the growth benefits of these reforms will depend, critically, on the effectiveness and the timing of their implementation, so need to pay attention to those issues as well with the reform."
A few months ago, Israel ambassador to India Ron Malka too had expressed his confidence over the issue.
"Once the Indian market is open and every farmer can sell to anyone they want...they can adopt these platforms (developed by Israel) by making necessary adjustments for local market conditions.”
"It will take some time to do some adjustments as the current system has been in place for a long time, but once the dust settles and we get a new equilibrium, it will be for the benefit of farmers, customers and of course the overall Indian economy," he said.
There are reports that Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) are easily bypassing APMCs to find suitable buyers.
As an example, Jai Sardar FPC had bought maize from farmers in Buldhana district of Maharashtra.
The FPC then sold the maize to a private company in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The FPC then rewarded the farmers by sharing a part of its profit with them.
"We decided to share some of the profit with the farmers who had sold their maize to us and distributed a bonus of Rs 10 per quintal to the farmers. The amount is small but is a gesture of appreciation", the FPC's founder Ashish Nafade had been quoted.
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