Remunerative Prices for Farmers – Legalising MSP

ASHA realises that fair and remunerative prices for all Farmers (not just landowners and not just Cultivators of crops) are critical to securing decent, living incomes in this risky enterprise called farming. ASHA has been in the forefront of shaping the discourse around creation of legal entitlements for farmers to remunerative MSPs in all their interfaces with markets. In 2013, ASHA Co-Convenor joined the effort of Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers’ Movements (ICCFM) when they forced the Government of India to set up a Committee on MSP, which was headed by Dr Ramesh Chand. ASHA again took the lead in drafting a statute for All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, where ASHA Convenors were members in the national Working Group of AIKSCC. This Bill, after being finalised through extensive consultative processes across the country and with leaders of various political parties, was later introduced in the Parliament as a Private Member’s Bill. Our efforts to secure MSP as a legal right for all farmers continue.