NEW DELHI: Nearly three years after repealing the reform-oriented farm laws due to farmers’ protest, the Centre has now come out with a draft national policy framework on agriculture marketing suggesting states to move towards a “unified national market for agriculture produce” through single licensing /registration system and single fee.
Allowing setting up of private wholesale markets; permitting wholesale direct purchase by processors, exporters, organised retailers, bulk buyers from farm-gate; declaring warehouses/silos /cold storages as deemed market; allowing establishment and operation of private e-trading platform; single time levy of market fees across the state; and rationalization of market fee and commission charges are some of the other key suggestions of the government to reform the agriculture market.
The draft was released by the agriculture ministry last month seeking comments from stakeholders for a wider consultation. It was prepared by a committee, set up under the chairmanship of Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, additional secretary (marketing) in the agriculture ministry.
Though states/UTs have started adopting one or the other such measures in limited or uneven manner, the draft suggests uniformity across the country and pitches for constituting an “empowered agricultural marketing reform committee” of state ministers on the lines of such a committee on GST to push the states to adopt the reform provisions.
The draft notes that such a joint panel may help in building consensus among the states to move towards a unified national market, and suggests a “permanent secretariat” on the lines of the GST empowered committee.
It says the committee may consider proposing to bring a law for agricultural marketing, uniform market fee and such other issues for the benefit of farmers and barrier free agri-trade with an approach of “ease of doing trade”.
The draft emphasises that the key idea behind the proposal is to “build a vibrant marketing ecosystem in the country wherein farmers of all categories find a market of their choice to realise best price for their produce”.
Recognition of trading licenses of other state (reciprocity of trading licence); de-regulation of perishables outside the market yard; exemption of market fee on direct sale by farmers; and exemption of market fee on produce brought from other state for processing are some of the other suggestion of the draft policy.
Underlining importance of ongoing focus on creation of digital public infrastructure using block-chain technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for strengthening the supply chain processes right from farm to storage, the draft says that the mission of the proposal is to “put in place a mechanism to mitigate the uncertainties of market and price”.
As such, the draft proposal talks about development of an improvised version of e-NAM in the form of Digital Marketing Portal (DMP) as part of a larger market stack.
It says in the changed marketing dynamics, there is a need for creation of end-to-end Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI) and digital infrastructure for “effective and transparent marketing delivery”. “VCCI will lead to integration of supply chains and reduction of transaction costs,” says the 39-page draft.
Meanwhile, the ministry has already received many stakeholders’ suggestions/ comments on the draft with a few farmer organisations even demanding its withdrawal by flagging several unacceptable points in the proposal.
“There is no mention of ensuring a remunerative minimum support price (MSP) for farmers, which was a central recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF), chaired by the late M S Swaminathan, and a key issue in the national political discourse. Instead, the document seems to mislead farmers by promoting a corporate-driven agenda, emphasizing technical solutions like blockchain and Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI),” said P Krishnaprasad of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), affiliated with the Communist Party of India (CPI), while expressing his concerns over the draft proposal.
He said, “The proposals are dangerous and have the potential to destroy the existing protections that have been put in place to safeguard farmers and small producers from exploitation by large, monopolistic corporate interests.”
In their written response to the proposed policy, Rajinder Chaudhary and Kavitha Kuruganti, co-convenors of the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), said the ministry’s move was an attempt at reviving the “massively rejected” agri-market reforms that were contained in the “three infamous farm laws” which had to be repealed.
“At the outset, we would like to state that even a quick glance through the document clearly shows that it is an attempt by the Union government to revive its agenda of de-regulating agricultural markets, and leaving the farmers at the mercy of corporate players,” they wrote to the ministry.
They said, “The draft policy framework focuses on institutional reforms, and does not specify what the Union government will do specifically towards bridging marketing and auxiliary infrastructure gaps in terms of financing and supporting state governments.”
