JOIN USDecoding farmers' demand of a legally guaranteed MSP
The year-long ‘Satyagrah’ by farmers resulted in the Centre announcing its decision to revoke the three controversial farm laws, but this is unlikely to satisfy the protestors as they are also seeking a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for 25 notified commodities.
Farmers braved severe heat, cold and rains for nearly a year, protesting reforms that they said "threatened to put them at the mercy of the corporate sector". With that out of the way, the agitation will now continue for a statutory legislation to guarantee a remunerative MSP.
Why MSP law?
The MSP is a minimum price for certain crops that the government guarantees to the farmers to protect them against steep price fall and to balance reserves in case of excess production.
Agitating farmers, who were worried that the revoked reforms would do away with this support, want the government to bring this under the purview of the law.
Farmers have consistently complained of receiving remuneration for their produce much lower than the international level due to ever-rising costs of cultivation and the government’s aim to keep food prices under control. MSP was a key tool as it gave farmers a safety net and security.
The Centre’s repeated clarifications that the government will continue to buy staples at MSP have not appeased the farmers. This has been identified by many as a lack of trust between the two parties.
MSP is currently fixed for 23 farm commodities — 7 cereals (paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi and barley), 5 pulses (chana, arhar/tur, urad, moong and masur), 7 oilseeds (rapeseed-mustard, groundnut, soyabean, sunflower, sesamum, safflower and nigerseed) and 4 commercial crops (cotton, sugarcane, copra and raw jute).
Can MSP be made into a law?
MSP can be brought under the ambit of law in two ways. The first would be to force the private buyers to pay it, wherein no crop can be purchased below the MSP. This is already done with regard to sugarcane crops, where mills are required to pay the farmers a “fair and remunerative price”.
The second option would be for the government to buy the entire crop that farmers offer at MSP. Government agencies do not have to buy the entirety of the produce as buying even a quarter or a third of the produce helps in rigouring sales.
Agriculture scientists and experts have opined that such a law will be difficult to implement and would result in higher food inflation. “The demand for a law on MSP will elicit a bigger response from farmers now because it be a direct step towards higher income. It involves huge central expenditure and this will be a bigger problem for the Modi government,” Sudhir Panwar, a professor of Lucknow University, told Hindustan Times.
Celebrations erupt but agitation to go on
Celebrations broke out at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders on the national capital where the protestors have pitched tents and blocked highways soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday morning that the three laws will be repealed in the upcoming Winter Session of the Parliament.
“We hope that the Government of India will not allow the announcement to go waste and will go the full length to fulfil all the legitimate demands of protesting farmers, including statutory legislation to guarantee a remunerative MSP,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body spearheading the agitation, said in a statement.
(With agency inputs)