As Congress backs farmers’ MSP demand, what has the govt committee set up in 2022 done so far?

This comes at a time when a committee appointed by the central government in July 2022 continues to deliberate on ways to make MSP more “effective and transparent”.

This panel was constituted seven months after farmers who had gathered at Delhi’s border called off their year-long protest, after the Prime Minister announced the repeal of the farm laws. The committee’s terms of reference do not include a legal guarantee for MSP.

The committee

The committee, which was set up to “promote Zero budget based farming, to change crop pattern keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more effective and transparent”, was notified by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on July 18, 2022.

The committee, which has 26 members, is headed by Sanjay Agrawal, a former agriculture secretary.

Its other members are (i) NITI Aayog member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand, (ii) two agricultural economists, (iii) an award-winning farmer, (iv) five representatives of farmers’ organisations other than the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), (v) two representatives of farmers’ cooperatives/ groups, (vi) one member of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), (vii) three persons from agricultural universities and institutions, (viii) five secretaries of the Government of India, (ix) four officers from four states, and (x) one joint secretary from the Agriculture Ministry.

Under the category of farmers’ representatives, the committee had three positions for members of the SKM, the umbrella body of farmers’ unions that had spearheaded the 2020-21 agitation, but they did not join the committee.

The SKM has not joined the ongoing protest so far. The farmers currently marching to Delhi belong to the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political), a breakaway faction of the SKM.

Purpose of panel

On November 19, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government had decided to withdraw the (now repealed) three farm laws — the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

“A committee will be constituted to decide on matters like promotion of zero budget farming, i.e. natural farming, scientifically change the crop pattern keeping in mind the changing requirements of the country, and make MSP more effective and transparent.

“The committee will include representatives of the central government, state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists and agricultural economists,” Modi had said. The notification of the Agriculture Ministry was along the same lines.

Mandate of panel

The ministry’s July 18, 2022 notification said the committee’s “subject matter” has three points: MSP, natural farming, and crop diversification.

On the MSP, the committee has been asked for suggestions to “make available MSP to farmers of the country by making the system more effective and transparent”. The panel is also supposed to make recommendations to strengthen the Agricultural Marketing System “as per the changing requirements of the country to ensure higher value to the farmers through remunerative prices of their produce by taking advantage of the domestic and export opportunities”.

The committee was also asked for suggestions on the “practicality to give more autonomy to Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and measures to make it more scientific”.

Progress in panel

The committee on MSP had its first meeting on August 22, 2022.

The Agriculture Ministry has said the committee has been meeting on a “regular basis actively to deliberate” on the “subject matters assigned to it”. Six main meetings and thirty-one sub-group meetings/ workshops have been held by the committee so far, according to the ministry.

The July 18, 2022 notification did not specify the tenure of the Sanjay Agrawal committee. Therefore, the committee has no deadline by which it is required to present its report.