As usual, with an authoritarian attitude, the states were asked for suggestions on the policy after giving them only 15 days. The draft, describing the country’s current marketing structure as inadequate, recommends various amendments to it and claims that these amendments will improve marketing and increase farmers’ income, but in reality, this agricultural policy is an attempt by the Modi government to bring back in a new form the three ‘black farm laws’ that were repealed after a long struggle of 13 months on the streets of Delhi in the year 2020-21, which included breaking up government markets and implementing contract farming. This draft has been presented at a time when farmers of Punjab and other states are continuously demanding legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and debt waiver and are fighting a fierce struggle for this. Many farmers and labor organizations of Punjab have been struggling on the Shambhu border for the last 10 months and Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has been on a fast unto death at the Khanauri border since November 26. In these circumstances, the Modi government’s coming up with a corporate-friendly agricultural marketing policy exposes the government’s anti-farmer and anti-people attitude.
The main objective of this draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing is to break the government markets and create private wholesale markets. This step will pave the way for Adani, Ambani and other corporate houses to control the agriculture sector. By creating a trend of farmers towards private markets with higher prices offered by corporate houses for one or two years, the government wants to reduce the dependence of farmers on the APMC market and enjoy the MSP system. This policy, on the one hand, is intended to fulfill the long-standing desire of corporate institutions to occupy agriculture and land, and on the other, it is the intention of the central government to get rid of agricultural marketing.
Amendments have been suggested in the draft national policy to declare warehouses, cold stores and silos etc. as markets. These amendments will create many new threats in Punjab and other agrarian states, such as monopoly of corporate agriculture, increase in crop costs, difficulties in regulating the market, economic loss to small farmers, weak APMCs and more exploitation by middlemen, etc. Declaring warehouses, silos, cold storage etc. as markets and purchasing the produce of private traders directly from the farms will make them profitable than regular markets. This will not only help APMCs will not only lose income through market fees, but farmers will also have to face exploitation, price fluctuations and other risks. The policy will directly take the Adanis’ silos in Punjab out of the state’s jurisdiction, which will open a direct path for farmers to be exploited.
The second law repealed by the Modi government was that of contract farming. The current agricultural market draft emphasizes bringing this contract policy. The country’s past experience with contract farming has been extremely bad. The contract farming policy implemented through Pepsi and Mahindra has exploited farmers. The ongoing poultry contract farming has exploited farmers to the fullest. Big corporations in the race to make profits often take advantage of loopholes in the rules, create dependency and unilateral bargaining power makes farmers weak. The policy of contract farming in the country should be rejected outright.
The draft Agricultural Marketing Policy does not even mention MSP, which is not only a fundamental element of agricultural marketing, but has also been the biggest demand of farmer movements across the country. The 26-member committee formed by the central government on MSP during the repeal of black laws did nothing in two and a half years, while this policy made for corporate institutions has been ready in a few months and the government is ready to implement it. Instead of encouraging private markets that exploit farmers, the government should focus on making MSP more effective by ensuring C2+50%. The Punjab State Agriculture Policy (2023) has also emphasized on implementing the recommendations of MSP as per the Swaminathan Commission. Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Charanjit Singh Channi has recommended giving the MSP a legal guarantee.
The proposal to reduce or waive market fees for corporate houses and private traders will financially weaken the government mandi, thereby affecting the market infrastructure and services on which the rural economy of Punjab depends. The policy advocates capping market fees at 1% for perishable goods and 2% for non-perishable goods. Market fees and commission should never be waived for private traders nor should it be capped at lower rates. These fees are an important source of revenue for the states, generating funds for development of infrastructure of government mandis, construction of link roads and other essential services. These waivers will cause huge financial loss to Punjab (Rs. 4000-5000 crore annually), severely hampering the development of agricultural marketing in the state. As a result, insufficient revenue from market fees will be generated by APMC. Or other agencies may be forced to impose any other alternative additional tax or surcharge which will indirectly affect farmers or consumers.
The recommendations on e-trading and digital marketing in the draft agricultural market policy will also benefit corporate houses, as farmers will be able to access e-trading services.
cannot go towards redistribution. The policy focus on digital marketing will mainly benefit private traders through privatization and public-private partnership (PPP) models while ignoring government markets. This approach will have an adverse impact on state revenue and farmers’ profits.
This policy will expose farmers to greater price volatility and increased dependence on market forces, resulting in increased exploitation of farmers and financial instability. Also, this policy ignores international agricultural marketing, where export duties, restrictions and minimum export prices imposed by the central government directly affect agricultural marketing and farmers’ profits. This policy is also a direct attack on the rights of the states, as agriculture is a state subject and a central agricultural marketing policy will strangle the federal structure of the country.
The performance of the Punjab government towards this policy has been lax. Only after the farmers and the general public started protesting, the government has paid attention to this and held meetings with experts and farmer leaders. Now the Punjab government should show speed and completely reject the draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing. For this purpose, a special session of the Vidhan Sabha should be called and a resolution should be passed against this policy and this policy should be rejected. As an alternative, it will be in the interest of the state to implement the ‘Punjab State Agriculture Policy (2023)’ prepared by an 11-member committee formed by the Punjab government.
