Withdraw the Draconian National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing

AIKS Demands that Union Government must Withdraw the Draconian National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing

AIKS Calls for Nationwide Protests against Attempts to Bring Back Draconian Farm Laws, Join SKM Protest to Burn Copies of the Policy on 23rd December 2024 in districts across India

Ashok Dhawale, President
Vijoo Krishnan, General Secretary

The draft “National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing”, circulated by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare for public suggestions has revealed the sinister intentions of the RSS-BJP led Union government. It is a conspiracy to sacrifice farmers’ interest and maximize corporate profits. Petty producers will be adversely hit and pushed out of agriculture. AIKS demands withdrawal of the National Policy Framework forthwith.

The neoliberal fundamentalists have hailed it as a significant move from the Narendra Modi led government to reform the farm sector towards market orientation after it was forced to roll back the last big move via the enactment of the three draconian Farm Laws.

The celebratory mood in ruling class circles and corporate media is that with this draft, the Centre has opened a path for a “consultative and persuasive way” to push drastic market reforms and thus succeeded in bringing back certain important components of the hated and repealed Farm Laws by the back door.

An objective review of the draft reveals that the Centre has opted not to address any of the serious demands raised by the fighting farmers’ movement like legalising MSP, increasing public investment in agriculture, pro-farmer credit facilities etc. While the draft pays lip service to the fact that agricultural marketing is a State subject under Article 246 of the Constitution, the spirit of the draft is to dismantle the power of the state governments and abolish state supported market infrastructure and erode the role of the APMCs, leaving small and medium farmers highly vulnerable to the exploitation by private trading cartels. 

The major suggested reforms in the draft include the establishment of the private wholesale markets, direct farm gate purchases by corporate processors and exporters, replacement of traditional market yards with corporate controlled warehouses and silos, and introducing a unified statewide market fee and trading license system. It is significant that big business houses, including Reliance and Adani, have constructed extensive warehouse infrastructure and private railway networks in areas such as Sirsa, Haryana and Ludhiana, Punjab.

The draft proposes that big corporations can purchase produce directly from farmers, bypassing APMC market yards. Additionally, handing over storage infrastructure to private corporations eliminates a critical safety net for farmers during price volatility and facilitates corporate exploitation by denying farmers any space for bargaining prices. Big

Business is virulently against MSP because its strategy is to procure produce at the cheapest rate, do value addition, brand and market it by ensuring exorbitant profits. This way, Big Business is exploiting farmers as well as consumers. In the name of market efficiency, the Centre is creating a conducive atmosphere for Corporate loot of agriculture.

The draft does not include a regulatory clause to make the corporate industries and traders liable to share a certain percentage of the surplus that they usurped with the primary producers as remunerative price for the raw products supplied by them. The BJP-led NDA government is thus surrendering to corporate interests, perpetuates peasant suicides and indebtedness, and facilitates pauperisation of the peasantry.

In a clever move, the Centre is trying to give the message that “cooperative federalism” can revive farm reforms and thus achieve barrier-free trade in agricultural produce under a nationwide standardised policy. The draft has suggested to form an “Empowered Agricultural Marketing Reform Committee” of state agricultural marketing ministers on the lines of the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers on GST “to push the states to adopt the reform provisions in the state APMC Acts, notify the rules and also build up consensus among the states to move towards a unified national market for agricultural produce through single licensing/registration system and single fee”. 

The intention of the Centre is very clear in the draft when it suggests that this Empowered Committee of state ministers should try to “bring a law for agricultural marketing, uniform market fee and other issues for the benefit of farmers and barrier free agri trade with an approach of ease of doing trade”. It is ironic that the Centre brought the example of the Empowered Committee on GST, where the Centre was dictating terms and conditions to the states and state finance ministers publicly expressed helplessness and protest.

Significantly, in a self contradicting manner, the draft documents the “deplorable” condition of the Bihar Mandis after the repeal of the APMC Act. It is self contradictory because at the peak of the legendary Delhi farmers’ struggle, RSS-BJP leaders and corporate interests close to the Union government were spreading the narrative that Bihar’s abolition of the APMC Act was a classic example of deregulating the farm markets. According to the draft, at the time of the repeal of the APMC Act in 2006, there were 95 APMCs in Bihar. Out of 95 APMCs, 54 were established with market yard facilities and 41 were running in rented premises. “With the repeal of the APMC Act, 41 APMCs running in rented premises stopped functioning. 54 APMCs markets still exist, though in a deplorable condition”, the draft says. 

The draft is crystal clear on the need for corporatization of agriculture; it is seen as the only way to “reform” agriculture. For instance, the draft visualizes the much hyped FPO scheme, a pet project of Modi, as a tool for furthering corporate penetration. This is by creating a conducive atmosphere for cluster based FPOs to enter contract farming arrangements with big business houses operating in agriculture. The class interest behind the extraordinary eagerness shown by corporate lobbying groups like CII and FICCI in promoting the FPO scheme is unfolding. The stranglehold of big business houses is also evident in the suggestions for deepening financialization via Futures and Option Markets. This will also permit the MNC’s and International Finance Capital to dominate and control the domestic food industry, jeopardizing the food security of the people of India. 

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) will fight tooth and nail the efforts by the BJP-RSS government to surrender Indian agriculture on a platter to the MNC’s. The AIKS demands that the Union government withdraw this draft forthwith and instead engage in a meaningful dialogue with farmers’ organizations and state governments. The AIKS calls upon all its units to actively take part in the SKM-led protests of burning copies of this Policy on 23rd December 2024 in districts across India.