[Marxistindia] Resolution adopted at the 24th Congress of CPI(M)

[news from the cpi(m)]

Resolution

 

Withdraw Draft National Policy Framework on 

Agricultural Marketing

 

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It is a subterfuge to smuggle in the three hated and repealed Farm Laws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.

 

***

 

 

 

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