New draft Agriculture policy pitches for transparent crop marketing system

The new draft Agriculture Policy has called upon the Punjab Government to establish alternative, transparent marketing systems to ensure farmers receive fair prices for their crops. The policy criticises the role of ‘arhtiyas’ (middlemen), highlighting their manipulation of crop prices and the exploitation of farmers through high interest rates on credit, spurious farm inputs and excessive commission charges.

While acknowledging the financial support arhtiyas provide to some farmers, the draft policy stresses that these agents often manipulate price, setting crop prices based on arbitrary, unscientific calculations. Except for crops like paddy, wheat, and sugarcane, which have a fixed minimum support price (MSP), the arhtiyas control the pricing of crops without any competitive bidding process.

The policy reveals that formal bidding often occurs early in the morning, at times when farmers are absent, leaving arhtiyas with the freedom to set unfairly low prices. To address these issues, the policy proposes the creation of the Agricultural Marketing Research and Intelligence Institute (AMRII), in collaboration with Punjab Agricultural University. This institute would act as a global market monitor for farmer associations and coordinate with the Centre’s import-export agencies.

Additionally, the policy recommends establishing the Innovative Agricultural Marketing Society (IAMS), staffed by marketing experts, to work directly for the benefit of farmers. Another key suggestion is the formation of the State Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission to provide accurate cost and return estimates for crops, dairy products and eggs, which would help in determining fair MSPs.

The policy was developed by the Agricultural Policy Formulation Committee led by Dr Sukhpal Singh, chairman of the Punjab State Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Commission, with inputs from various agricultural and economic experts.

The draft is now open for inputs from farmer organisations before it is finalised.