New Delhi: A 29-member committee formed by the Modi government to review a clutch of agriculture policies is fast turning out to be a sore point with farmer unions and the Punjab government.
Following year-long protests by farmer groups, the Narendra Modi government had last November repealed the three farm laws it had enacted in 2020. During negotiations with farmer unions, it had agreed to set up a committee to look into the demand to make minimum support price (MSP) a legal entitlement.
Eight months later, on 12 July this year, it constituted a mega panel to deliberate on a wide range of farm policies — from making the MSP regime transparent and effective to suggesting ways to diversify cropping patterns. The committee has also been tasked with looking at ways to encourage the ‘Indian Natural Farming System’, and reviewing existing micro-irrigation schemes.
The committee is chaired by former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal. The farm laws were introduced when he was in office.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which led the anti-farm law protests at Delhi’s doorstep, has refused to be a part of the panel, which it says is populated with “government loyalists and advocates of reform laws”.
Punjab, among the largest suppliers of grains to public food stocks purchased at MSP, has strongly objected to the composition of the committee. Early Wednesday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed the government for not including a representative from the Punjab government in the panel.
Four states — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Sikkim — are part of the 29-member panel.
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Future conflict
On the MSP front, the panel has been asked to suggest mechanisms to make support prices more effective and transparent for farmers across India.
In addition, it has been asked to submit its recommendation on ways to strengthen the existing agriculture marketing system “as per changing requirements of the country to ensure higher value to farmers…by taking advantage of domestic and export opportunities”.
According to some experts ThePrint spoke to, a rejig of the existing procurement system in states like Punjab and expansion of MSP-based purchases to other states — arising out of possible recommendations by the committee at a later date — may lead to a political tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Punjab and the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Currently, most of the rice and wheat grown by farmers in Punjab and Haryana is purchased by the Union government at support prices. When the government introduced the reform laws in 2020, farmers in these states feared a weakening of state procurement at guaranteed prices and demanded a repeal of the laws.
“Looking at the composition of the committee, it seems the government is making way for ending the open-ended procurement policy in states like Punjab and extending the benefit of support prices to other states,” Ajay Jakhar, chairman of farmer body Bharat Krishak Samaj, and former head of the Punjab Farmers’ Commission, told ThePrint.
Jakhar added that other than Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, which contribute significantly to public food stocks, have no representation in the committee.
Wide ambit
The committee, which has not been given any deadline to submit its recommendation, has a sweeping mandate.
The mega panel is expected to “promote zero-budget based (natural) farming, to change crop pattern keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more effective and transparent”, according to a government notification.
Political analyst and Samyukt Kisan Morcha member Yogendra Yadav said, “Many of these issues have been looked into by committees which have already submitted their reports to the government.”
These previous committees include the ‘Doubling of Farmers’ Income’ panel, which submitted a 14-volume report in 2018, and a high-level panel led by former Himachal CM Shanta Kumar, which submitted a report on public food procurement reforms in 2015.
In addition, a committee headed by Ramesh Chand, who is currently a member of the Niti Aayog, submitted a report in 2015 on reviewing the methodology of MSP calculation.
“While the latest committee can make way for a backdoor entry of the repealed farm laws in the future, it could as well end up as a non-starter. It’s like a tick on the box… the Prime Minister had announced, so here it is,” Yadav said.
Two members of the committee ThePrint spoke to said they were not consulted before being inducted into the panel. Eight days after the notification was issued, both are awaiting official intimation that they are now members of the panel.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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