86 per cent of all the farm organisations in the country had supported the central government’s farm laws, according to a report released on Monday by the high-powered committee constituted by the Supreme Court to the study these laws.
The panel had interacted with 73 agricultural organisations which represented around 38.3 million farmers. Among them only 4 groups representing 5.1 million farmers did not agree.
“The feedback received by the committee through its online portal established that one-third of the respondents did not support the farm laws and around two-thirds were in their favour… In view of this feedback, the committee recommends that a repeal or a long suspension would, therefore, be unfair to this ‘silent’ supporters,” the report said.
Another set of 7 farm organisations, representing 3,60,000 farmers supported the laws albeit with certain modifications.
Amongst the comments invited by the panel, it received around 19000 representations as well as comments. Amongst them, two-thirds of the respondents supported the act, the report said.
The high-powered panel initially had four members. These were agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, Shetkari Sanghatana President Anil Ghanwat, Pramod Kumar Joshi (former South-Asia Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute), and Bhupinder Singh Mann (President of a faction of the Bhartiya Kisan Union). Mann had later opted out of the panel.
The committee had recommended the central government to change the Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy. It also denounced the legalization demand of the MSP, terming it illogical.
“Any product that is produced needs to be traded at a viable price. MSP is an indicative floor price to protect the farmers against any undue fall in prices, especially at the time of harvest. The government does not have the financial coffers to buy whatever is produced of all 23 commodities that are currently under the cover of MSP,” the report said.
The panel was constituted in January 2021 while it stayed the implementation of the three farm bills.
In November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address announced that the government had withdrawn the farm laws.
