Workshop on Farmers Rights to Livelihood CUTS International Kolkata Sanjeev Chopra Secretary, Agriculture West Bengal

National Foreign Trade Policy 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 : 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  Over sixty export zones in the country  Competitive advantage of a particular crop/commodity

Foreign trade Policy  New sectoral initiatives Agriculture and Village Industries Vishesh 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!