'Attempt to bring back repealed farm laws': Punjab govt rejects Centre's draft policy on agricultural marketing

The AAP-led Punjab government had termed the draft policy as an attempt to reintroduce the three central agricultural laws passed in 2020 "through backdoor". After a year-long protest by farmers, the Centre had to repeal the laws.

Punjab farmers have already rejected the draft policy with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha vociferously raising their voice against it.

In a communication to S K Singh, deputy agriculture marketing advisor and convener of the drafting committee, the Punjab special secretary (agriculture) pointed out that the draft policy was totally silent on the issue of procurement of wheat and paddy at the minimum support price, which was the most crucial one.

"At the time of the farmers' agitation in 2020, one of the main issues was the apprehension of the farmers that the government of India has the ultimate objective of doing away with procurement of wheat and paddy at MSP. Total absence of any reference to procurement at MSP in this draft policy has again given rise to the same apprehensions in the minds of the farmers of the state. This is the most crucial issue for the state of Punjab," said the letter.

The state government further noted that the draft policy places significant emphasis on promoting private markets.

"The broad spirit of the policy is to promote private markets and to significantly dilute the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Markets and to eventually make them irrelevant. In Punjab, on an average an area of 115 Sq km is served by an APMC market. This is the highest density of APMC Markets amongst all the states in the country.

"So, there is no need for any new private markets. As of now, farmers are able to sell their produce in the APMC markets in a totally transparent manner and under a well-established regulatory regime which ensures that the interests of the farmers are safeguarded.

"With the coming in of private markets, the APMC markets will be destroyed. Thereafter the farmers will be at the mercy of the owners of the private markets," it said.

The state government also objected to the proposal of capping the market fee at 2 per cent for non-perishable commodities and 1 per cent for perishable commodities.

"In Punjab, market fees and RDF (rural development fund) have been utilised to establish a network of roads connecting each village to the Mandi so that farmers are able to bring their produce to the mandis… With the reduction in these fees, it will not be possible to maintain the mandi yards and the rural roads network. Under such circumstances it will be difficult for farmers to bring their produce to the mandi yards to market them to get remunerative prices," it said.

The state government further pointed out that contract farming has been a significant concern for farmers.

"They raised this issue very prominently during the farm law agitation. The draft policy encourages the promotion of contract farming," it said.

"The proposal to declare silos as deemed market yards has been strongly opposed by farmers, who fear that Multinational Corporations (MNCs) will step into the shoes of Food Corporation of India (FCI) and exploit them.

"They also apprehend that the ultimate objective is for FCI to get out of purchasing wheat and paddy at MSP. This will be greatly detrimental to the marketing of the two major crops of the state," it pointed out.

The state government also objected to the capping of commission charges in the draft policy at 4 per cent ad valorem on perishable and 2 per cent on non-perishable commodities.

"The government of Punjab totally disagrees with this draft policy on agricultural marketing. It feels that this draft policy is an attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farms laws repealed in 2021 by the Centre after a year-long protest by the farmers," said the letter.