Going through all the aspects of Indian Farmer in the Highlights of Farmers Act 2020 I would like to Conclude that Farmer is not less than an Entrepreneur!
Who is an Entrepreneur?
Here is the Google definition from Oxford on Entrepreneur.
In the case of Indian Farmers are doing FARMING BUSINESS as they:
- Lease field, Procure Seed, Do Farming, Produce the Crop
- Thrive the Risk of Loss through Weather Protection, Insecticides
- Research on Best Price Markets, Sell the Product
- Manage Expenses, Make Profit
FARMING IS A BUSINESS!
All these make me think that Farmer is NOT a Wage Worker. Wage Worker have No Risk & Get Paid daily/weekly based on the Wages agreed. Here the Farmer have Risk on Capital, Produce & Market Prices. Clearly this is an Entrepreneur kind of work.
WAGE WORKER HAVE NO RISK!
In developed countries Farmer Entrepreneurs exists – but they work on higher scales. In India these Individual Farmers are also One Man Show Entrepreneurs.
What are the Goals of an Entrepreneur?
- In one sentence, Solve a Problem, Reap the Benefits, Expand!
What are the Qualities of Good Entrepreneur?
- Good Education – Language, Mathematical, Logical etc.
- Good Research Skills – Find the best crop to cultivate, Find the best market to sell etc.
- Good Accounting Skills – Track income, expense, Project earnings, Leverage debt etc.
- Good Organizing Skills – Join with other Farmers, Create Big Storage, Enable Big Customers for Smooth Operations
The Problem
Now let us see whether the Farmer is having above skills or not.
- Based on the Arguments raised by Protesters – the Poor Farmer does not have Reading & Understanding skill of the Legal Contract Document – That fails the most important quality required – Good Education! link
- Based on the Issues like Cauliflower being charged for Rs. 1 it is Evident that the Good Research Skills to find best crop & best market are absent. link
- Based on the Facts of Debt Farmers committing Suicide it is evident that the Good Accounting Skills are also lacking link
- Only after above problems are resolved, then the Farmer would be able to Organize into Big Farmer Groups, Lock-in Big Customers, Keep Out Filthy Brokers, Sell to Big Customers making a Consistent Seamless Operation of Produce, Deploy, Sell activities.
The Solution
Considering the above problems & root causes I can only 2 types of solutions:
- EMPOWER THE FARMER to gain all the above skills. Otherwise they cannot run a profitable business themselves, or they could get cheated with a filthy contract too. (even with MSP support)
- DOWNSCALE AS WAGE WORKER to ensure a tension-free, debt-free, work-life.
Other than that I don’t see any solution. Do you?
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