Eight months after farmers ended their protest at the borders of Delhi after forcing repeal of the new farm laws, the Center notified a 29-member- committee to “promote zero-budget based farming” and to make the minimum support price (MSP) more “effective and transparent”. The terms of reference of the committee, do not, however, mention any legal guarantee on MSP, one of the key demands of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha of farmer unions that spearheaded the protest.
The panel is headed by former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal. As promised to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) that spearheaded the protests against the farm laws, the ministry kept the posts of three members vacant in the panel to accommodate the SKM’s representatives once it received the names. The Morcha has, so far, not sent names of its representatives to the ministry.
Other than representatives from SKM, the committee will have National award-winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi as well as five members from other farmer organisations such as Gunwant Patil, Krishnaveer Choudhary, Pramod Kumar Choudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel.
The other members of the committee are: Ramesh Chand, member (agriculture), NITI Aayog; agricultural economists Dr C S C. Shekhar (Indian Institute of Economic Development) and Dr Sukhpal Singh (IIM, Ahmedabad); national award winning farmer Bharat Bhushan Tyagi; representative of Farmers’ Cooperative/Group Dilip Sanghani, chairman, IFFCO, and Binod Anand, general secretary, CNR; Naveen P. Singh, senior member, Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP).
Senior member of agricultural universities/institutions: Dr P Chandrashekhar, Director General, National Institute of Agricultural Extension (MANAGE); Dr J P Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu; Dr Pradeep Kumar Bisen, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur.
Secretaries of 5 government departments/ministries including Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General (ICAR), Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Textiles.
And Additional Chief Secretaries or Principal Secretaries (Agriculture) of four states — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha. The Joint Secretary (Crops) in the Ministry of Agriculture Ministry has been named Member-Secretary of the Committee.
