Why I believe farmers should embrace "Farm Bill 2020"

Ever since the farmers protest started in Aug 2020 last year till now a lot of development taken place including eleven rounds of talks between the central government and farmers union, the most unfortunate republic day parade incident, barricading of the protest site(singhu border). Their are somewhere around 10 demands on which farmers are protesting of which revocation of "Farm Bill 2020" is at the centre of all this.

Few demands such as withdrawal of cases against farmers leaders, cutting diesel prices for agriculture, abolishment of "Electricity ordinance 2020" are completely justified. On 30th december centre has also agreed to the demands of dropping amendments to the new electricity ordinance. One more demand of farmers that central govt has agreed to is excluding farmers from law curbing stubble burning which is going to have profound impact on people of Delhi and around. Its like giving them the right to destroy the environment, when in fact government should have been strict in this law because pollution free environment is everybody's right. We all know how grave the condition of Delhi becomes every year due to stubble burning , from small children to elderly people will have to pay a huge price for this with their health. 

Coming to the central issue of all this protest i.e "Farm Bill 2020" which seeks to change the way farm produce are procured and encourage contract farming or privatisation of farming that farmers are so adamant in getting repealed. I donot know if farmers or their leaders in this protest have gone through the pros and cons of this law completely. Farmers need to rethink if protesting against the farm bills will benefit them in the long run . Because the way i see it can help to bring out a lot of farmers from poverty , increase their productivity and sell more.

The current situation of most of farmers is that most of the farmers are poor they do not make enough to spend on their family or pay their loans instead they are getting buried in loans and ultimately lead them to suicide. This problem can be attributed mostly to low farm produce , bad weather, not able to sell their produce in different markets than the traditional market due to lack of proper supply chain system.

But at the same time there are lots of new age farmers like Prateek, a resident of Bhopal, worked as a product manager in a bank now enjoys farming more than the previous job and also making profit of 1.5 lakh per acre and plans to take it to 4 lakh per acre. If we analyze bothe then it is clear that this new age farmers have not only money to spend, but also use technologies to its maximum, and also shows the ability to improvise as and when needed due to which they are able to produce more and derive profits regardless of whatever the weather conditions or government policies are. This new age farmers are able to produce not only in bad weather conditions but also in small spaces inside cities or in terrace, at the same time they are doing what is called eco-friendly farming which is a win-win situation for all.

Traditional farmers using traditional farming practices need to keep in mind that they won't go very far like this, if they donot change their farming practices or if they avoid using technologies in farming let alone competing with other farmers, after all farming is also a business. So in order to survive or thrive in this area they need to embrace new farming practices which they donot seem to be able to adopt so far due to lack of knowledge, lack of money. 

Now farmers themselves cannot revolutionize the farming methods due to lack of fund mostly, so they are going to have to take support from corporates, who will bring not only bring money and technology but also the infrastructure that was missing. If farmers are under the impression that without all this they would just rely on government subsidies to get by, then it would not be a sustainable approach and in the long run will make the situation even worse for farmers. Climate change is already very much evident , for example nowadays the weather pattern is very unpredictable, this will also make farming very difficult. 

So my suggestion is "Better be late than sorry". 

Why I rate "CONFIDENCE" more over "KNOWLEDGE"?

 

Human beings are very complicated creatures of all, its very difficult to understand human beings. Our whole understanding will not be enough to fully understand the ways of life and how it plays out, for example it always baffles me how some people even after having knowledge and educational qualification fails to excel in life and then their are some who donot have even basic qualifications or knowledge but still excel or achieve. If you have knowledge their no guarantee that you will be rich and happy. Their are numerous example around us, I am sure you must have met both kinds of people or you can also find yourself in one or the other category.

I myself being highly qualified and have the right set of knowledge and capability still finds it difficult to professionally and personally excel , everyday seems kind of a hustle for even as simple as survival. Its just not me but observed many times that people value other traits such as confidence and personality over knowledge, take for example prime minister Narendra Modi, his charisma and larger than life personality hides the fact he is biased towards a certain community and religious group, which otherwise would have been deteriorating to someone's image. I think its part of human nature to not look beyond what is obvious. How many times have you befriended someone due to their intellect? Even when it comes to choosing partner most would prefer looks or confidence over intelligence.

Well my reason to rate confidence higher than knowledge is because confidence seems to attract people more easily towards you, it can also help you easily influence others and it also make you emotionally strong. I am not advocating that one should only work in their confidence and completely ignore sharpening your knowledge or skills, knowledge does have its importance, but if given an option to choose between the two, I might go for confidence.

I am 32 years old but feels like missing the right level of confidence that a person of my age should have. Most of our confidence comes from how financially strong we are, or how attractive we look. Cosmetics companies have established a billion dollar market out of young men and women desires to look attractive. Now its hardwired in our brain that good looks equal to more confidence. But I wish that it was knowledge or inner strengths that fueled our confidence.