Welcomes SKM (NP)- KMM’s Rejection of Anti-farmer Proposal of Contract Farming by Union Ministers
NEW DELHI: SKM welcomed the decision of SKM(NP) and KMM to reject the proposal of a five years contract farming for 5 crops on MSP@A2+FL+50% and crop diversification by the Union Ministers and to continue the struggle till achieve all the common demands. The decision has been in the right direction of greater unity of the entire farmers across India.
SKM considers at this time of huge human disaster due to the lingering agrarian crisis- 27 farmers commit suicide every day and young farmers are forced to join the rank of migrant workers to work for a pittance in the urban centers and 80 crores of the people depends on free ration under the Modi Raj- the need of the hour is the largest unity of the kisan movement against the corporate forces. SKM urges all the Kisan organisations across India to support the mass protest of farmers in the constituencies of the BJP-NDA MP’s on 21st February 2024 demanding implementation of agreement signed by Modi Government with SKM on 9th December 2021 and stop the brutal state repression on farmers' struggle.
SKM declares it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister and the executive to implement the agreement they signed with the SKM on 9th December 2021 and do justice to the promise in the BJP manifesto of 2014 general election on implementing MSP@C2+50% for all crops with legally guaranteed procurement.
The “experts” and media editorials serving corporate interest are hell-bent on misinterpret that legal guarantee for MSP for procurement of all crops at minimum support price could spell ‘fiscal disaster’. This argument is the logic of corporate forces. SKM and all the pro-people experts and scientists have reasoned no MSP means human disaster - as the country is witnessing in the countryside today- filled with intensifying poverty, indebtedness, unemployment and price rise. The SKM desires to focus on the importance of protecting peasant agriculture for the staple food production mainly paddy and wheat by ensuring remunerative income and extending subsidies to reduce cost of production. Certain sections opines, the crop diversification helps to address water level depreciation, the kisan movement is not against crop diversification per say but not by undermining staple food production, food security and thus, the sovereignty of the country.
The argument that the Union Government has to find Rs.11 lakh crores for providing MSP to farmers for all the 23 crops also is baseless since the legally guaranteed procurement does not mean the government has to pay and procure but to ensure the corporate forces share their profit with farmers as remunerative price and the Union and State governments and the public sector abet the producer cooperatives and non-corporate private sector to undertake post harvesting operations of procurement, primary and secondary processing, storage and infrastructure building and branded marketing . This policy shift will bring employment generation, better price and wage to workers and farmers and more tax income to the state and union governments.