Workshop on Farmers Rights to Livelihood

CUTS International

Kolkata

Sanjeev Chopra

Secretary, Agriculture West Bengal

National Foreign Trade Policy 2004-08 and Farmers Rights in the context of agribusiness and commercialization

Explanation of Key Terms

What is Trade Policy ?

Fiscal , monetary and Institutional support to certain sectors

Maximizing the competitive advantages of a nation

National Foreign Trade Policy 2004-09 : Implications for agriculture

Foreign Trade Policy for Agriculture

India and the WTO India’s options at AoA Negotiating Strategy was to prevent imports India never sought to develop and establish

a market for its agri exports

APEDA

Ministry of Commerce realized the potential of agri exports

Sixty AEZs established - process gained momentum from 2001-02

Over sixty export zones in the country Competitive advantage of a particular

crop/commodity

Foreign trade Policy 04-09

New sectoral initiatives Agriculture and Village IndustriesVishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana

earmarking of funds under ASIDE for AEZ

Vishesh Krishi &Gram Udyog Yojana

Objective : agri/minor forest/forest/gram Udyog products along with their value added variants

To ease high transport costs and infra bottlenecks,5% of the FOB value of exports (in forex) will be granted to the exporters

Farmers’ Rights

Peasants and Farmers Farmers Rights vs. Rights of the State Right to collect revenue Right to determine ‘what to grow’ Right to trade? Right to propagate seeds?

Agribusiness

Agriculture and Agribusiness Value Addition Capital and Skill intensive Market orientation

Commercialization

Food security at household, community and village levels

Food security at regional and national levels Shift from consumption crops to

commercially profitable species Differential impact on different income

brackets

Impact of AoA

On the middle class consumers On producers On resource poor consumers

Per capita availability of food grains is actually declining

Who is responsible?

Have farmers ever driven government policy? Have farmers fought for their own rights or the

rights of society and community Can the entire rural population be classified under

the broad head of farmers?

Contract farming ???

Contracts – presuppose equality and options Negotiating Power Negotiation Skills Farmers Organizations : Co-operatives Is a symbiotic relationship possible

Prior Informed Consent

Information about the present Information about the future Discussion about implications Policy Formulation : Stakeholders involvement GM crops – introduction regarding The matrix of risks and profits

In conclusion

Internal consultations were inadequate before the accession to WTO

Foreign Trade policies are NOT determined by farmers, but by Economic Ministries

Individual Farmers would find it extremely difficult to gain any foothold in the negotiations

Strengthening Farmers co-operatives or interest groups is perhaps the only way to get the farmers a better deal, both from corporates and policy makers

The current initiative is a welcome first step!