Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, spearheading “Delhi Chalo” farm protests, rejected a proposal by the Centre for a five-year contract with farmers to procure maize, cotton, and pulses at minimum support price (MSP) through cooperatives and promote crop diversification.
SKM’s Jagjit Singh Dallewal and KMM’s Sarvan Singh Pandher reiterated their demand for a legal guarantee of MSP on 23 crops, following a C2+50% formula of profit over input cost.
After consultations with protesters at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana, the two announced plans for farmers to resume their march towards Delhi at 11am on Wednesday. Over 20,000 protesters have been camping at these locations for past seven days.
BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) general secretary Kaka Singh Kotda urged farmers from every village in Punjab to converge at Khanauri and Shambhu. Three farm unions - Punjab Kisan Union (Baghi), Sada Eka Jindabad Morcha Punjab, and Kisan Mazdur Naujwan Ekta Punjab - also pledged their support to protests, announcing their intention to join gatherings at Khanauri and Shambhu in large numbers.
During fourth round of negotiations in Chandigarh on Sunday night, Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai presented the five-crop MSP proposal, involving National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), and Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) in the procurement process. While Goyal praised the proposal as “out of the box” and emphasised its potential to encourage crop diversification and improve groundwater levels in Punjab, Dallewal and Pandher criticised it, likening it to contract farming.
Agri leaders highlighted potential savings govt could achieve by providing MSP on all crops, estimated at £17.5 billion. They argued that such savings align with govt’s expenditure on importing pulses and could be significantly reduced by promoting domestic production.
They asserted that extensive consultations with stakeholders preceded their decision “so that the Centre did not have a chance to claim that farmers immediately rejected its proposal without any debate”. Also, they highlighted unaddressed issues such as farm debt waivers. Centre’s offer was also dismissed by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM).