The Centre has finally constituted a committee headed by former Union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agrawal here on Monday to look into the issues of minimum support price (MSP), as promised to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) earlier in January. The panel has three unfilled posts for representatives of the SKM, which will be filled as and when the Centre receives the recommendations from the umbrella body of farmers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said while announcing the decision to repeal the three farm laws that a committee will be constituted to promote zero budget-based farming, to change crop patterns keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more effective and transparent. He had said the committee will consist of representatives of the Central and State governments, farmers, agricultural scientists and agricultural economists.
Apart from Agrawal, NITI Aayog Member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand, agricultural economists CSC Shekhar and Sukhpal Singh, award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi, members from other farmer organisations Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Gumi Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel, IFFCO chairman Dilip Sanghani, CNRI general secretary Binod Anand, senior member of the CACP Naveen P. Singh, agriculture experts P Chandrashekhar, J.P. Sharma and Pradeep Kumar Bisen will be members of the panel.
Secretaries of Departments of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Agricultural Research and Education, Food and Public Distribution, Cooperation, Textiles and Director General ICAR will represent the Centre in the panel. Representatives of State governments, and the member-secretary of the panel will be Joint Secretary (Crops).
SKM leader Hannan Mollah said the SKM will take a decision on the government’s offer to be part of the committee soon. “At the moment, we are holding nationwide protests against the policies of the Centre. We do not know the brief given to this committee. The SKM will take a final decision,” Mr. Mollah said.
The “subject matter of constitution” of the committee, according to a gazette notification, include suggestions to make MSP available to farmers by making the systems more effective and transparent. “Suggestions on practicality to give more autonomy to Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and measures to make it more scientific,” the notification added.
To evolve an agricultural marketing system
It also says that the committee will discuss methods to strengthen the Agricultural Marketing System as per the changing requirements of the country to ensure higher value to the farmers through remunerative prices of their produce by taking advantage of the domestic output and export. On natural farming, the committee will make suggestions for programmes and schemes for value chain development, protocol validation and research for future needs and support for area expansion under the Indian Natural Farming System through publicity and through involvement and contribution of farmer organisations.
On crop diversification, the panel will look into the mapping of existing cropping patterns of agro-ecological zones of producer and consumer States. It will for a strategy for diversification policy to change the cropping pattern according to the changing needs of the country. “Arrangement for agricultural diversification and system to ensure remunerative prices for the sale of new crops, review and suggestion on micro irrigation scheme” are also part of the agenda of the panel.
