Central farm laws replace small middlemen with MNCs

Hyderabad: CPM State secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram said his party's stand on ongoing farmers' agitation and its opposition to the corporate entry in the agriculture sector in no way distance young people from the agriculture sector.

Speaking to The Hans India, he said that his party is against the entry of big and multinational corporate companies into the agriculture sector, not the young people who wanted to venture into agriculture to introduce emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Drone Technologies via corporate route.

He said CPM's opposition to the corporate should not be misconstrued. It is not the label that matters but what one does entering the agriculture sector. The multinational companies and corporate companies have an obvious agenda to make a profit at the cost of the interests of the farmers. However, if a young B. Tech or M.Tech graduate takes the corporate route to enter into the agriculture to assist the farmers in the process of modernizing the agriculture, then, "such people are welcome." Adding, "We oppose the corporate whose sole idea is to make only profit. Some young people wish to come even via corporate route, but, if their work is not driven solely for profit making, then, we welcome them. We consider such efforts as creating awareness among farmers like Rythu Chaitanya Yatra," he said.

Further, indeed, farmers are not getting their due despite the consumers paying a good price to the vegetables or other agriculture products in the market. This was due to the middlemen. If there is a system in which the consumers can get the products directly from the farmers, then there is no such problem.

The Centre which had brought the new agriculture laws justifies itself saying that the new acts are intended to remove middlemen. But, currently, the kind of middlemen present in the supply chain are very small ones.

"We can fight and bargain with the kind of middlemen currently engaged in the supply chain. When we stage a protest at least the price of cotton procurement goes up in the procurement centers."

But, when the multinationals like Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Reliance enters, then, the farmers will not be able to fight with such big middlemen. Unless the political system has grown to such strengths, it would also not be in a position to stop the exploitation of farmers by the multinationals, he added.

What the centre has done is removing the small middlemen and replacing them with bigger middlemen, he said. And, his party opposes such multinationals that enter the agriculture sector for profiteering. But not the young people who wanted to come into agriculture to modernize it and to empower the farmers.