The resolution was adopted by the 24th Party Congress of CPI(M)
The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is deeply concerned about the draft “National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM)”, circulated by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. This draft reveals the conspiracy of the RSS-BJP-led Union government to sacrifice farmers’ interests and maximise corporate profits. It is a subterfuge to smuggle in the three hated and repealed Farm Laws through the back door.
Instead of addressing any of the serious demands raised by the fighting farmers’ movement like legalising a remunerative MSP, loan waiver, comprehensive crop insurance, increasing public investment in agriculture, pro-farmer credit facilities etc, the central government has brought in this retrograde Draft. While the draft pays lip service to the fact that agricultural marketing is a State subject under Article 246 of the Constitution, the spirit of the draft is to attack federalism and the power of the state governments, abolish state-supported market infrastructure, and erode the role of the APMCs, leaving small and medium farmers highly vulnerable to the exploitation by private trading cartels.
The major suggested reforms in the draft include the establishment of private wholesale markets, direct farm gate purchases by corporate processors and exporters, replacement of traditional market yards with corporate-controlled warehouses and silos, and introduction of a unified statewide market fee and trading license system. The draft proposes that big corporations can purchase produce directly from farmers, bypassing APMC market yards. Big business houses, including Reliance and Adani, have already constructed extensive warehouse infrastructure and private railway networks in Sirsa, Haryana and Ludhiana, Punjab.
The corporate lobby and International Finance Capital (IFC) are virulently against MSP because their strategy has always been to procure agricultural produce at the cheapest rate, do value addition, brand and market it, and make exorbitant profits. This way, Big Business is exploiting both farmers as well as consumers. In the name of market efficiency, the Centre is creating a conducive atmosphere for the corporate loot of agriculture. It is thus perpetuating peasant suicides and indebtedness, and facilitating pauperisation of the peasantry.
The draft is crystal clear on the need for corporatisation of agriculture; it is seen as the only way to “reform” agriculture. For instance, the draft visualises the much-hyped FPO scheme, a pet project of Modi, as a tool for furthering corporate penetration. This is by creating a conducive atmosphere for cluster-based FPOs to enter contract farming arrangements with big business houses operating in agriculture. The class interest behind the great eagerness shown by corporate groups like CII and FICCI in promoting the FPO scheme is very clear.
The stranglehold of big business houses is also evident in the suggestions for deepening financialisation via Futures and Option Markets. This will also permit the MNC’s and IFC to dominate the domestic food industry, jeopardising the food security of the people of India.
Stiff resistance to the above Draft has begun. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) mobilised tens of thousands of farmers in recent nationwide protests burning the Draft. Two massive Kisan Mahapanchayats in Haryana and Punjab together mobilised over 75,000 farmers.
The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) calls upon all its units to further intensify the struggle until the pro-corporate and anti-farmer NPFAM is withdrawn.