{"id":39601,"date":"2024-02-14T04:35:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T23:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39601"},"modified":"2025-04-24T17:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T12:02:10","slug":"farmers-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/farmers-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers\u2019 Protest and MSP Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Minimum Support Price (MSP) Regime in India<\/li>\n<li>2022 Committee<\/li>\n<li>Term of reference of the committee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A major demand of the farmers protesting in Delhi is for the enactment of a law to guarantee minimum support prices (MSP) for all crops, as per the formula recommended by the Dr M S Swaminathan Commission.<\/li>\n<li>This comes at a time when a committee appointed by the central government in July 2022 continues to deliberate on ways to make MSP more effective and transparent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Minimum Support Price (MSP) Regime in India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background:\n<ul>\n<li>The Food-Grain Enquiry Committee, established by the Nehru administration in 1957, was the first attempt to address the agricultural earning issue.\n<ul>\n<li>However, it turned out to be insignificant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Then, in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri formed the Food Grain Price Committee (under LK Jha), to push for a MSP regime.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the fact that the report was quickly accepted by the Shastri government, the first MSP announcement was made in 1967.<\/li>\n<li>Thus, the MSP regime came into existence as a policy decision and the government set up the <u>Agricultural Prices Commission<\/u> for fixing MSP for crops.\n<ul>\n<li>The commission was renamed as the CACP in 1985.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>About MSP:\n<ul>\n<li>MSP is a form of market intervention (a policy decision not enforceable by law) by the Government to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices during bumper production years.<\/li>\n<li>These are announced by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (Chaired by the Prime Minister of India).<\/li>\n<li>The recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops forms the basis of these announcements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The CACP considers the following factors when recommending MSPs \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>A commodity&#8217;s demand and supply;<\/li>\n<li>Its cost of production;<\/li>\n<li>Market price trends (both domestic and international);<\/li>\n<li>Inter-crop price parity;<\/li>\n<li>The terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture (the ratio of farm input and farm output prices);<\/li>\n<li>A minimum of 50% as a margin over cost of production; and<\/li>\n<li>The likely implications of an MSP on consumers of that product.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Objectives\n<ul>\n<li>MSPs are a guarantee price for farmer\u2019s produce from the Government to prevent the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.<\/li>\n<li>E.g., if the market price for a commodity falls below the specified minimum price due to bumper production and a market glut, government agencies will buy the entire quantity supplied by farmers at the announced minimum price.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Crops covered:\n<ul>\n<li>Government announces MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane (total 23).<\/li>\n<li>Crops covered by MSPs include:\n<ul>\n<li>7 types of cereals (paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi and barley),<\/li>\n<li>5 types of pulses (chana, arhar\/tur, urad, moong and masur),<\/li>\n<li>7 oilseeds (rapeseed-mustard, groundnut, soyabean, sunflower, sesamum, safflower, nigerseed),<\/li>\n<li>4 commercial crops (cotton, sugarcane, copra, raw jute).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>2022 Committee<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background\n<ul>\n<li>This panel was constituted seven months after farmers who had gathered at Delhi\u2019s border called off their year-long protest, after the Prime Minister announced the repeal of the farm laws.<\/li>\n<li>The committee\u2019s subject matter has three points: MSP, natural farming, and crop diversification.<\/li>\n<li>However, the <u>terms of reference do not include a legal guarantee for MSP<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>The committee was notified by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers\u2019 Welfare in July 2022.<\/li>\n<li>The committee, which has 26 members, is headed by Sanjay Agrawal, a former agriculture secretary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Term of reference of the committee<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>To promote Zero budget natural farming (ZBNF).\n<ul>\n<li>ZBNF guides farmers toward sustainable farming practices, which helps to retain soil fertility, ensure chemical-free agriculture, and ensure low production costs (zero cost), thereby increasing farmers&#8217; income.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To provide suggestions on 5 points regarding natural farming including &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Suggestions for programmes and schemes for value chain development, protocol validation and research for future needs.<\/li>\n<li>Support for area expansion under the Indian Natural Farming System by publicity and through involvement and contribution of farmer organizations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To change crop patterns keeping in mind the changing needs of the country.<\/li>\n<li>To recommend measures to strengthen the Agricultural Marketing System in response to the country&#8217;s changing needs.\n<ul>\n<li>This is to ensure higher value to farmers through remunerative prices for their produce by capitalizing on domestic and export opportunities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To provide suggestions on 4 points related to crop diversification including &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Mapping of existing cropping patterns of agro-ecological zones of producer and consumer states;<\/li>\n<li>Strategy for diversification policy to change the cropping pattern according to the changing needs of the country;<\/li>\n<li>Arrangement for agricultural diversification and system to ensure remunerative prices for the sale of new crops;<\/li>\n<li>Review and suggestion on micro irrigation scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To make MSP more effective and transparent.\n<ul>\n<li>It will also make recommendations to give CACP more autonomy as well as measures to make it more scientific.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) is a decentralized agency of the Government of India that advises the government on the price policy of major agricultural commodities.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What was M S Swaminathan?<\/h3>\n<p>Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1925 &#8211; 2023) was an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian. He was a global leader of the green revolution, a program that involves planting high-yield varieties of wheat and rice seedlings.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/congress-farmers-msp-demand-sanjay-agrawal-committee-9159694\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>As Congress backs farmers\u2019 MSP demand, what has the govt committee set up in 2022 done so far?<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/vikaspedia.in\/agriculture\/market-information\/minimum-support-price\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Vikaspedia<\/u><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/news-analysis\/story\/farmers-protest-farm-bills-lets-decode-msp-puzzle-1746515-2020-12-04\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>| India Today<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MSP is the minimum price that the government sets for certain agricultural products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}