The Centre’s digital agriculture proposals raise concerns of exploitation of farmers, data protection and consent, mismanaged land records, exclusion of landless cultivators and the corporatisation of agriculture, according to 91 organisations which sent in their feedback to the government on Wednesday. They also demanded that the Centre stop implementation of the pilot projects being rolled out in partnership with tech and retail giants including Microsoft, Amazon and Patanjali.
The Centre published a consultation paper on an India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) on June 1, and sought public feedback by the end of the month. The 91 organisations, which include some of the farm unions groups protesting against three farm reform laws at Delhi’s borders as well as digital rights advocates, urged the government to extend the deadline to translate the document into other languages in order to hold meaningful consultations with farmers. They noted that there is no farmer representation in the task force which brought out the proposals or in the governance framework of IDEA.
The organisations said it was important to bring the benefits of digital technology to farmers, but emphasised that such digital infrastructure should be owned by the government, not private corporates. They alleged that the current model is more focussed on using the government’s existing databases and geared towards corporate revenue models, rather than ensuring that farmers’ needs and interests are considered.
Land records
“The proposition of a “farmers’ database” based on digitised land records will lead to problems and exclusions, given the seriously flawed condition of the digitised land records themselves and their failure to capture the information of actual cultivators and those operating the landholding,” said their letter.
They also pointed out that without a data protection law in place, there is no mechanism to ensure that farmers’ consent is sought before their data are used.
Some of the signatories include groups such as Bharatiya Kisan Union-Tikait, Krantikari Kisan Union and Jai Kisan Andolan which have been leaders in the protests against the three farm reform laws. They point out that the deregulation of post-harvest marketing and facilitation of contract farming through the farm laws result in a higher risk of farmers being exploited by corporates.
“It is not far-fetched to imagine a scenario where an e-commerce website ties up with a farmer offering to connect them directly to consumers, like ride-hailing apps promise to connect drivers with riders. Such an e-commerce website may initially even offer good rates to farmers, like the ride-hailing apps initially offered good rates to drivers,” said the letter, offering one example of concerns. “Once the traditional post-harvest supply chain of the farmers is broken and the farmers have no choice but to supply to the e-commerce company, the e-commerce websites could start paying the farmers less. They will also use the knowledge gained from the artificial intelligence to surge price consumers for the food they are buying from the underpaid farmers
