Row over MSP panel
The committee set up by the Union Government with the purpose of making the minimum support price (MSP) system ‘more effective and transparent’ has run into trouble at the outset, with questions being raised about its composition. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions that had spearheaded the year-long agitation at Delhi’s borders against the three Central farm laws, has rejected the panel, claiming that its members include some ‘so-called farmer leaders’ who had backed the now-repealed laws. Even though Punjab played a key role during the Green Revolution to make India food-surplus and continues to be a major contributor of foodgrains to the Central pool, the committee has no representative of the state government or its institutions. Punjab Agricultural University has been given the go-by, even as the panel includes the top brass of the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (Hyderabad), Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (Jammu) and Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University (Jabalpur). There is also no member from Haryana Agricultural University despite the state being an important stakeholder in the farm sector.
Senior bureaucrats from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha are part of the 26-member committee. The glaring omission of officers from Punjab and Haryana is unacceptable. It calls for a review to make the panel truly inclusive. The committee tasked with thrashing out issues pertaining to the MSP regime, which is the backbone of the government procurement system, can ill afford to get mired in controversy even before it becomes operational. Already, it has taken too long to be formed — eight months after the government promised to do so, while withdrawing the farm laws.
The committee will also discuss measures to promote natural farming, crop diversification and micro-irrigation schemes. Weaning farmers off the water-guzzling paddy and incentivising them to grow alternative crops with assured MSP can go a long way in mitigating the groundwater crisis and making farming sustainable. All these ways can be recommended and explored in due course; the immediate priority for the Centre should be to do course correction on the panel’s make-up.
