Punjab: Draft agri marketing policy worse than farm laws, says SKM

Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which spearheaded the year-long farmer agitation in 2020-21, says mahapanchayats at Tohana and Moga on January 4 and 9 will adopt resolutions against the National Policy Framework on Agriculture Marketing.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Friday said that the newly announced draft of the National Agriculture Marketing Policy by the NDA government was “more dangerous” than the three repealed farm laws.

Farmers raising slogans as they block a road during the Punjab Bandh in Amritsar on December 30. The farmers were protesting against the central government, demanding minimum support price (MSP) for their crops. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

The farmers’ body claimed that the policy, if implemented, would erode the federal rights of state governments and destroy the interest of farmers, agricultural workers, petty producers and small traders since there is no provision to ensure minimum support price (MSP) and minimum wages to farmers and farm workers.

In a release, the SKM, which spearheaded the year-long farmer agitation in 2020-21, said: “The BJP-led NDA government, under the influence of corporate forces and World Bank, through the policy proposes to erode federal rights of state governments. The policy facilitates the domination and control of MNCs and international finance capital over domestic agricultural production and the food industry, threatening India’s food security and compromising its sovereignty with the slogan of one nation one market.”

It called upon political parties to clarify their stand on the proposed policy. It congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government and chief minister Bhagwant Mann for rejecting the draft policy.

The SKM appealed to chief ministers of all states to conduct a democratic discourse involving stockholders, including farmers, workers, petty traders, industrialists and exporters, and develop an alternative policy framework.

The SKM said the kisan mahapanchayats at Tohana in Haryana and Moga in Punjab on January 4 and 9, respectively, would adopt resolutions against the proposed policy.

The SKM said the root cause of the income crisis faced by farmers cannot be resolved through technical reforms alone. “The agrarian crisis is fundamentally social and political, stemming from class contradictions. Farmers produce raw material that enters markets controlled by processing industries, trade houses, and exporters, who in turn dictate prices. However, the policy document fails to address any provisions that would hold corporates accountable for sharing a fair portion of the surplus they extract from the market. There is no mention of a remunerative MSP for farmers, which was a central recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers, chaired by the late MS Swaminathan, and currently a key issue in the national political discourse,” it added.