I’m in Delhi today and the first thing my cab driver said when asked about the protests in the name of farmers is this - ‘I’m a farmer and I completely support these acts. Its sickening to see protests of this sort’.
When probed further, I could hear these things evidently.

He has shifted to Delhi few years back as he couldn’t make any living out of agriculture. Now slowly & steadily he is alternating between driving a cab and farming back home. He says, he is getting the confidence to return to farming for the first time for the following reasons

1.The inputs costs on agriculture has gone down - fertiliser and seed costs are drastically down, soil health cards are available, an govt insurance cover in case his crops fail, INR 6000 that is being paid to all of the small farmers like him directly to their accounts etc.

2.He agrees that he really looks forward to the day, when the whole village can over rule one ‘local uncle’ who acts as the Arhtiya - commision agent & get the freedom to sell to any where, anytime & to anybody. He rues the fact that he doesn’t have the power to fix the price

3.Nobody gets paid MSP in his state. This is for two reasons. They pay 3%+3% to the mandi and that is detected from their account. The first 3% for mandi commision and the other for local development tax. The current politics is over this and on the 2.5% Arthiya commision extra

4.Arhtiya’s are a complex set of system created by Punjab state as a facilitator between the mandi and the buying house. These Arthiya’s are powerful economically and they tend to lose more in these new acts. They are going all out to protect themselves and their turf.

5.Keeping MSP as the centre of the protests will not take them anywhere. From 3 agricultural produce in 2014, 21 farmer produces are covered now. In fact this govt is widening the MSP net in two ways - bringing more products under MSP and increasing the support price as well.

In short what the previous governments have done is to insult farming and to make farmers to feel lowly about them selves. Dole Outs will take a back seat and farming for the first time after Indian independence will see youngsters and others taking up willingly.

I hope my cab driver will also shift back to his home state of Punjab soon to purse his first love - farming.
Let us help our farmers by setting the truthful narrative.

#FarmActsGameChanger
#FarmersWithModi