Now Reading: SKM says farm law repeal didn’t fix agrarian crisis
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SKM says farm law repeal didn’t fix agrarian crisis
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has said the government's assurances given when the three farm laws were repealed remain unfulfilled. In an interview with Frontline, SKM national coordination committee member Ashok Dhawale…
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has said the government's assurances given when the three farm laws were repealed remain unfulfilled. In an interview with Frontline, SKM national coordination committee member Ashok Dhawale said the prime minister's claim of insulating farmers from global urea price shocks was misleading. Dhawale argued that while subsidies lower the MRP, farmers face queues, rationing, and black-market prices when supply is tight.
Dhawale also opposed free trade agreements in agriculture, saying Indian small farmers cannot compete with heavily subsidised, capital-intensive agriculture in the US, Europe, or Australia. He said opening markets without a legal guarantee of remunerative prices exposes farmers to risks while corporations capture profits. The SKM, which led the 18-month protest that forced the repeal of three farm laws in 2021, has now called for scrapping all agro-based FTAs.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The debate over FTAs and fertilizer subsidies sits atop a deeper structural question that the election season will force: does India’s budget have room for both fertilizer subsidies and schemes such as MGNREGA? With urea imports costing Rs 1.5 lakh crore annually, any shift in global prices directly strains fiscal arithmetic. The real test comes when the next Kharif season begins, farmers will watch whether the government raises procurement prices or caps subsidised fertiliser bags per buyer. The SKM’s next nationwide protest is likely to hinge on that decision.
Source: frontline.thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
