NEW DELHI: Amidst the ongoing farmers’ agitation, former senior official of NITI Aayog and agriculture expert Tajamul Haque has called for amendments in the contentious farm laws for longtime objectives of agriculture.
Haque, former chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Cost and Prices, said that the government should give a legal sanctity to the MSP without committing for 100 per cent public procurement to protect the interests of the farmers.
Quoting the NSSO data, Haque argued that even in the case of major crop like kharif paddy only 29 per cent of the total quantity sold was through the mandis, while 49 per cent was sold to local private traders and input dealers at lower prices.
He said, thus, it’s not entirely correct that the farmers are shackled with the mandis and the farm laws would liberate them. Haque added that the cooperative and government agencies accounted for 17 per cent of the total quantity of kharif paddy marketed in the country.
On the basis of realistic and dispassionate analysis of the current agriculture scenario, Haque suggested that the government should accommodate key amendments in the farm laws.
“The key amendments should provide for uniform regulatory mechanism for trade within the mandi and outside, besides duly fixed MSP as the base or reference price for fair average quality of produce, within and outside APMC, including under contract farming,” Haque said, adding that improved enforcement, dispute settlement mechanisms, availability of reliable price and market data should be provided.
Haque also called upon the government to address the need of the farmers in underdeveloped areas with adequate number of physical market yards within a reasonable distance, all-weather roads, transportation services, banks, warehouses and cold storage facilities, along with upgradation of the existing 22000 rural haats and their integration with wholesale regulated markets.