The Punjab Government Friday agreed to implement the Direct Benefit Transfer system for farmers. Now, money will be directly transferred to the farmers after the procurement.
Till now, the money for procured crops was routed through arthiyas.
The Union Government made it very clear that it would be difficult to move ahead with procurement this season if the new system was not implemented.
It also asked the Punjab Government to keep the middlemen out of the system.
The Union Government has been requesting the state governments to implement the DBT system since 2018. Nearly all states have implemented the new system, the major exception being Punjab.
The reason is arthiyas have a strong say in the agriculture economy and system of Punjab.
Arthiyas are the middlemen who act as agents between the government and the farmers. They charge commission for this process.
The Union Government believed that farmers should be free from the clutches of arthiyas.
The wheat procurement is to begin in Punjab in the next two-three days and the expectation is the procurement this season would be around 130 lakh tonnes.
The farmers of the Punjab vehemently opposed the three progressive farm laws. The new laws provided the farmers freedom to sell wherever they wanted.
Many reports suggested it were the arthiyas who were actually the agitators as they feared the loss of income as a result of the new laws.
