The Farmers protest of 2024 is still an ongoing protest which started on the date 13th of February of 2024 morning, demanding a government’s guarantee on the setting an assured floor price or minimum selling price on the crop production in continuation of the 2020-2021 farmers’ protest based on the “ANTI- FARMER LAWS” as affirmed by the many farmer unions.  The farmers demanded to make a bill for the minimum support price (MSP) so that the corporations cannot control the prices and farmers will not be left on their mercy.  Due to the demands left unfulfilled in 2020-2021 protest the 2024 farmers protest started.

Again on 13thy February 2024 farmers started a protest starting from Punjab with the goals to revoke all the  three bills introduced by the union.

GOALS OF FARMERS

1.     Every farmer should get an amount of 10,000 every month as pension who are above the age of 60 years.

2.     A fixed daily wage for the farmers farming under the MGNREGA scheme. The daily wage to be fixed of amount 700 Rs. a day with a guaranteed employment of 200 days a year.

3.     An ensured profit of 50% by government on over their overall cost of production.

4.     A legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all the crops

5.     Government should implement all the recommendations made by the MS. Swaminathan committee on agriculture.

6.     Justice for the violence happened in the Lakhimpur kheri  on 3rd October 2021.

7.     Government to withdraw all the cases registered during the last farmer’s protest of 2020-2021

“QUIT WTO” BY SAMYUKTA KISAN MORCHA

The farmers on 26th February 2024, led by the Samykta Kisan Morcha(SKM)  a non-political party,  has changed their stance of protesting. the farmers have the guaranteed MSP behind and have set a goal of “quit WTO”. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has now informed the central government about their new demand to get INDIA to pressure the developed countries to get the agriculture sector out of the World Trade Organisation in the next meeting.

The 13th conference of the WTO (MC13) is scheduled to be held for 26-29 February at Abu Dhabi. The purpose of this meeting is to review the functioning of the multilateral trading system and to take action on the future work of the WTO. The Conference will be chaired by H.E. Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade.

Government of India must firmly defend the rights of the country to protect its farmers and ensure national food security,” this is what SKM said in statement.

According to SKM India’s national food security system also including the minimum support price guarantees and also the purchase by governments and state-owned enterprises of goods, services and works of the farmers production and also the grain distributrion are at the mercy of the WTO. The disputes which happen in WTO affect all the said things and the farmers directly.

The general secretary of the Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, a farmers union said that “ the policy of WTO is very bad for the farmers” and “ the government should take INDIA out of the WTO”

The farmers have decided to put a hold on the “DELHI CHALO” march till the 29th of febrauray and have stay put along the  Punjab – Haryana  borders.

The government has already stated that” India would seek the removal of additional final bound total aggregate measurement of support (FBTAMS) entitlements at the WTO meeting in Abu Dhabi”.

WHAT IS (FBTAMS)?

The FBTAMS are the fixed additional allowances over the ‘de minimis limits’ set under the rules of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

In trade ‘de minimis limits’ as per the WTO Agreement on Agriculture means  Minimal amounts of domestic support that are allowed even though they distort trade — up to 5% of the value of production for developed countries, 10% for developing.

WHY INDIA WANTS REMOVAL OF FBTAMS ?

If India wants to support the MSP program then the removal of FBTAMS is necessary because the current inequalities and asymmetries in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) should be addressed before beginning any discussions on domestic support. Therefore, eliminating historical disparities in home support must come first when discussing disciplines related to domestic support for India.

India supports that the playing field should be levelled by eliminating he FBTAMS entitlements which are enjoyed by many members of the WTO. Which allow them to provide support beyond the ‘de minimis limits’ as per the AOA and also the vast flexibility which makes it possible for those nations to make product specific support .

Many other issues on the  table are, like public stock holdings (PSH) and special safeguard mechanisms that poor nations have requested to be addressed, are also rooted in this inequality.

India has been questioned on regular basis by the US and Canada ober its public stock holding programme on the grounds that is it is highly subsidized , especially for the RICE.

A permanent solution to the public food grain stockpiling problem has also been recommended by India and a number of developing and African countries. This solution would allow them to allocate more funds for agriculture support.

CONCLUSION

The two farmer groups leading the demonstrations at the Shambu and Khanuari borders, SKM and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), have declared a series of protests till an announcement is made at the end of this month regarding the future course of action. The most recent round of farmer protests, which started on February 13, comes after farm incomes have been subdued for the past year due to export restrictions on wheat, rice, sugar, and onions, which have lowered local prices. Recurrent climate changes  like heatwaves and unpredictable rainfall also have a negative impact on farm earnings. They want the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations implemented, a legal guarantee on the minimum support price, pensions for farmers and agricultural labourers, and the cancellation of farm debt.