FDI in Retail - Lets play with Farmers !

Farmers is synonymous of Mercy in India, even after 65 years of Independence, all credit goes to our beloved Politicians and policy makers. On 15th September UPA Govt. allowed FDI in multi brand retail to benefit farmers or MNCs with Government's decision to allow foreign direct Investment (FDI) in multi brand retail in India. Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) Secretary General P Chengal Reddy welcomed the move saying that it would help in raising the income of the farmers while Many expert feel that new policy will only help the multi-national companies and more than 3 Crore small shop owners will be impacted. Buy my point is that Why Farmers have to Pay Price always, why Not Shop-Keepers this time.

Lets have a look at some statistics and data on Farmers condition in India. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides between 1995 and 2010. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ places the number for 2010 at 15,964. That brings the cumulative 16-year total from 1995 - when the NCRB started recording farm suicide data - to 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history. So don't we have any responsibility towards more than 70 Billion people(65% of population) working in agriculture industry. In our current Product-Price Graph, Farmers are always looser as price is decided by Shop-Keepers, Distributors, Stockist, Agent/Dalals/Adatiyas while Farmers is just a resources of Money for these 3% people. So whenever any Policy try to break this Hierarchy, it is like challenging the more than 100 years old Ego and People start shouting No more FDI, No Foreign Companies even though they are shouting on Tata Docomo (Docomo Japan), Vodafone(74% UK), Airtel (34% SingTel), Uninor, MTS etc.. but still they don't want FDI in Retail because it minimize their profits. So when its all about Profit and Money why Not Farmers gets a chance to grow and make Money. FDI may be one of life changer to Farmers just like IT industry in late 90s, changed life of Indian Middle class with millions of High payee jobs in BPO and IT. So lets give a fair chance to BHARAT-I this time in two way direct channel without any profit sucking Agents. So its time to Stop playing with Farmers and people involved in Agriculture as Money Tree, Let them grow with World and Indian GDP.