Committee on MSP and natural farming to hold its first meeting on Aug 22, discuss future strategies

The first meeting of the committee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about forming to end the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) movement for the repeal of the three central farm laws and other issues, will be held in Delhi on August 22. The notification for the meeting has been issued after the recent formation of the committee with Sanjay Agrawal, former Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, as its Chairman.

According to the notification issued by Shubha Thakur, Member Secretary of the committee, the meeting will be held at the National Agriculture Science Complex (NASC) on August 22 at 10.30 am. However, the SKM, reaching an agreement with whom had necessitated the government's promise to form the committee, is not part of it. The membership slots in the committee for the three SKM representatives are vacant at present. According to the agenda for the first meeting, the committee will discuss future strategies.

The government had published in the Gazette issued on July 18 the notification brought by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on 12 July with regard to the formation of the committee. The committee includes Member (Agriculture) of NITI Aayog Ramesh Chand, Prof. CSC Shekhar from the Institute of Economic Growth, Dr Sukhpal Singh from IIM Ahmedabad and Senior Member of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Naveen P Singh.

National award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi has also been included as a farmer representative. According to that notification, there were to be three members from the SKM whose names were “to be added on receipt” (from SKM). Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel have been kept as members from other farmer organizations. Besides, Dilip Sanghani, Chairman, IFFCO, and Binod Anand, General Secretary, CNRI, will also be part of the committee. Senior members of agricultural universities/institutions, five secretary-level representatives of the Government of India and the chief secretaries of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha have also been included in the committee.

According to the notification, the committee will consider measures to make the current MSP system more effective and transparent. It will also make suggestions on giving more autonomy to the CACP. It will deliberate measures to strengthen the agriculture marketing system. Its objective is to ensure higher value to the farmers through remunerative prices of their produce by taking advantage of the domestic and export opportunities.

The committee will also offer its suggestions regarding promoting natural farming, crop diversification and micro irrigation scheme. It will also suggest strategies to make Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and other R&D institutions as knowledge centres.

Speaking about this step of the government, Yudhvir Singh, a member of the SKM core committee and general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), said to Rural Voice, “This committee does not match the one that SKM had asked to form. Our demand is that the government give a legal guarantee for MSP first and then form a committee to suggest measures necessary to implement it. But the government has made no mention of a legal guarantee for MSP; rather, it speaks of making the current MSP system effective. Besides, it has broad-based the agenda by adding to it issues like natural farming, crop diversification and making the CACP more effective.”

When Rural Voice spoke to a senior member of the committee on the issue of SKM members not being part of the committee, he said, “It would be better if the SKM joined the committee. They should put forth their opinion in the meeting of the committee. It is only through talks that any issue can be resolved.”

It may be considered only coincidental that just before the first meeting of the committee, the SKM is going on a 75-hour dharna at Tikunia in Lakhimpur Kheri on August 18, 19 and 20. A core committee member of the SKM said to Rural Voice, “This dharna is being staged in protest against the government not fulfilling its promises made during the movement. All constituents of the SKM will be part of this dharna.”