Gunwant Patil, member of Centre’s MSP panel, says aim is to liberalise agriculture sector, help farmers benefit from open market

Patil, a veteran member of Shetkari Sanghatana, the farmer’s organisation formed by the late Sharad Joshi, told The Indian Express that the platform given to him would allow him to bring about changes in the manner in which the MSP is calculated and also help farmers benefit from the open market.

“If the farmer gets an MSP higher than his cost of production there would be no problem in the agriculture sector. However, the way in which the cost of production is calculated is important. We, in the Sanghatana, have a synthetic manner of calculation of the same and I will take it up in the committee for discussion,” he said. The correct correlation of the cost of production and the MSP, he said, is important and thus has to be taken up by the central committee.

Agriculture, Patil said, is now shackled by multiple laws and farmers are always bonded. The monopoly of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) and the various laws which restrict the trade of agricultural commodities have harmed the sector, he said.

“Wheat prices skyrocketed due to the Ukraine crisis. If our farmers were allowed to directly export, they would have benefitted from the move. I will use this platform to educate farmers on the benefits of the open market,” he said.

Earlier, the Centre’s decision to revoke the three farm laws was met with strong protest from the Sanghatana. Like other members of the organisation, Patil said, this action was detrimental to the sector. “What we need is to make the farmers understand that the MSP is not the end of things, we have to make them aware of the benefits of the open market,” he said.

The Centre’s MSP committee has representation from farmer organisations, cooperatives and agricultural experts among others. Besides Patil, Sayyed Pasha Patel has been included from Maharashtra as a farmer representative. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the organisation which spearheaded the farmer protests against the now-repealed three farm laws, was asked to nominate three members, an offer it rejected.