The Centre, which released a draft “National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing” in November last year amid the on-going farmers’ protest in Punjab, may not pursue it further even as there was no public opposition from any State other than Punjab. Since it was voluntary in nature, without it also States are free to issue such a framework on their own and in due course their real intent on the framework will be known to all, sources said.

In Punjab, a resolution was passed in the assembly against the “draft framework” which officials in the agriculture ministry termed as “political” because it was, first of all, a draft and secondly not mandatory for any State. However, if States agree on some of the proposals in the framework, those can be independently implemented even without its adoption, sources said.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which led the farmer agitation against three controversial farm laws in 2020 until those are repealed, on Wednesday (March 5) wrote to Chief Ministers of different States urging them to press for the withdrawal of the draft policy framework. The SKM claimed that through the framework the Centre proposes to unite all APMC market yards (mandis) under one united marketing structure in which they are to be redeveloped under PPP mode and connected under digital mode.

Not unanimous

However, constituents of the SKM are not unanimous with regard to relevance of agricultural market yard as some organisations feel those are not needed in Kerala, but highly essential in other States. Currently, there is no APMC law in Kerala and Bihar and farmers are completely dependent on private traders to sell their produce, whereas in most of the major agricultural States, farmers have options to sell either at mandis or directly to licensed traders.

This draft framework aims to push all agriculture activities under control of private corporations and multinational companies, the SKM alleged and said that it is “completely silent on MSP, government procurement and PDS ration distribution.”

Another group of farmers under SKM (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) has been protesting at two border points of Punjab-Haryana since February last year after stopped from proceeding towards Delhi. They have been demanding legal guarantee of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to help them shift to other less water-consuming crops from paddy.

The Centre, on the other hand, besides guaranteeing to procure select oilseeds and pulses at MSPs for five years, also seeks to help farmers of all category find a market of their choice to realise best price for their produce.

“To build a vibrant marketing ecosystem in the country wherein farmers of all category find a market of their choice to realise best price for their produce, to be accomplished through improved efficiency, enhanced competition with multiple marketing channels and no monopsonic market structure, transparency, infrastructure and adoption of innovative digital technology and also agri value chain based marketing,” the draft policy had said.

Reforms in laws

The reforms in agricultural marketing laws have been carried out by many States, still a true alternative for the existing agricultural market yard (mandi) is yet to be developed, sources said, adding that direct marketing happening under single licence issued by one State should be valid in all other States.

The draft framework had proposed to integrate more number of markets —collection centres, aggregation points, private markets, deemed markets, GrAMs (Grameen Agricultural Markets), FPO premises, Common Agribusiness Centre and Market Place (CACMP) premises in addition to APMC markets (mandis) with eNAM portal.

There are about 125 wholesale private markets in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Besides, there are 22,931 grameen haats and 7,057 regulated markets (mandis) under APMC Acts (including 1100 non-functional).