As farmers plan another protest in Delhi, experts call for market reforms

Farmers to protest falling price of farm commodities, many of which are selling almost 20-30% below mandated MSP for kharif 2018

As farmers from several parts of the country are once again planning to stage a big protest in Delhi next month over the falling price of farm goods, experts and academicians called for market reforms and more decision making powers for states on agriculture-related matters to ensure higher income for cultivators.  

At a two-day 'Food Systems Dialogue' organised by Bharat Krishak Samaj, experts said that just announcing higher minimum support price (MSP) wouldn't lead to higher incomes for farmers unless it was supplemented by better and well-functioning markets. 

"The next phase of commodity boom will come from the consumers and it is they who will decide what to produce, how and when, for which markets need to be set right," Ashok Gulati, former chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP), said. He added that just announcing higher MSPs wouldn't guarantee higher income for farmers.

Former Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said that freeing agriculture markets was always a tricky issue as it fell under the domain of state governments and there was an issue of jurisdiction.  

Sen added that placing agriculture marketing in the concurrent list could solve some of the problems, but raised doubts over whether the constitution would allow that.  

"That is the reason why despite having 10 model laws framed by the Centre, nothing much has moved in terms of reforming agricultural markets," Sen said. 

He said that the one area in which the Centre could frame laws and which fell under its domain was setting standards for different products.  

"All this talk of common markets and electronic markets is useless in the absence of well-defined standards," Sen said. 

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Chairman Harsh Bhanwala, who also participated in the deliberations, said that one way to ensure better income for farmers was by organising them into collectives such as farmer-producer companies (FPOs) and joint liability groups (JLGs).

"India needs over 50,000 FPOs, and they should have scale of operations to make a tangible impact on farmers' lives," Bhanwala said. 

Former agriculture secretary Shiraz Hussain said that accessing farm credit was an important instrument to benefit farmers but it remained to be seen whether the entire amount allocated as farm loans was actually befitting the farmers. 

"We did some calculations and found that of the Rs 10 trillion of farm credit disbursed in 2017-18, around Rs 6.5 trillion went directly towards crop loans. Where the remaining amount went is a matter of investigation," Hussain said. 

Meanwhile, several farmers' organisations, under the banner of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), on Thursday announced their agitation programme, which would be held on November 29 and 30, to protest the falling price of farm commodities, many of which are selling almost 20-30 per cent below the mandated MSP for kharif 2018.   

"In the first three weeks of October alone, farmers have lost around Rs 11.50 billion because of not being able to sell their produce at state-mandated MSP as the Centre's much-talked about PM-ASHAA has been a non-starter so far," said Avik Saha, organising secretary of AIKSCC.