THE new National Agricultural Marketing Policy (NAMP) Framework, released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MA&FW) on November 25, 2024, has sparked widespread criticism and protests from farmers' organisations and experts alike. Following a call from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), farmers across the country staged protests on December 23, 2024, burning copies of the Marketing Policy. MA&FW provided stakeholders with just 15 days to submit responses, which is an attempt to rush through the policy to serve corporate interests. The proposals in the new framework facilitate the backdoor resurrection of the three controversial farm laws, which had been repealed due to concerns over their potential to corporatise agriculture, the food industry, and the public distribution system.

The proposals in the Draft NAMP are dangerous and have potential to destroy the existing inadequate system of regulations and protections that have been put in place to safeguard farmers and small producers from exploitation by large, monopolistic corporate interests. The suggested reforms are designed to dismantle what remains of the post-independence Dirigisme model, effectively opening agriculture, industry, and services to the control of corporate forces, including multinational and transnational corporations, as well as international financial capital. This shift could lead to the erosion of safeguards against corporate dominance and undermine the interests of vulnerable sectors in the economy.

The Policy Framework document, presented in 14 chapters, advocates for a fundamental restructuring of the existing agricultural marketing system, proposing its transformation into a Unified National Market (UNM) linked to a Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI). This proposal aligns closely with the perspectives of the World Bank and International Finance Capital. According to the draft, the agricultural value chain encompasses the entire range of goods and services required to move an agricultural product from the farm to the final consumer. The document references the World Bank’s definition of the value chain as “the full range of value adding activities required to bring a product or service through the different phases of production including procurement of raw materials and other inputs”. This is precisely the goal outlined in the NAMP: to integrate agricultural production and marketing in a way that prioritizes corporate interests over the welfare of small producers and farmers.

The document underlines that ‘large section of the farmers is still struggling for optimum income’, citing factors such as ‘high fragmented land holding, high cost of production, lack of demand driven production and accessibility to good markets for optimum realization of value for their produce’. The vision of the NAMP is to reshape the agricultural marketing ecosystem, aiming to ensure that farmers can secure the best possible prices for their produce through the integration of innovative digital technologies and value chain-based marketing. To address these challenges, the document proposes a marketing ecosystem centered around "integrated output management," which includes the application of digital public infrastructure such as blockchain technology, the adoption of innovations, and capacity-building through proper skilling and professionalism as key strategies to enhance farmers' income and improve their market access.

 The root cause of the acute income crisis faced by farmers is fundamentally social and political, stemming from class contradictions, and cannot be resolved through technical reforms such as value chains or blockchain technology. Farmers produce raw materials that enter markets controlled by processing industries, trade houses, and exporters, who in turn dictate the prices. However, the policy document fails to address any provisions that would hold these corporate forces— including processors, traders, and exporters— accountable for sharing a fair portion of the surplus they extract from the market. There is no mention of ensuring a remunerative minimum support price (MSP) for farmers, which was a central recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF), chaired by the late M S Swaminathan, and a key issue in the national political discourse.

Instead, the document seems to mislead farmers by promoting a corporate-driven agenda, emphasizing technical solutions like blockchain and Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI). It suggests that "transparency" and "ease of doing business" could somehow lead to "optimum income" for farmers, disregarding the underlying systemic issues of market power and the need for robust policy mechanisms that directly benefit primary producers.

The key reform proposed is the establishment of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which aims to integrate both the public and private sectors, preferably through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Under this framework, the Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI) would enable private sector involvement alongside the public sector in managing the entire food commodity supply chain process—from the farm to storage, and eventually to food processing centers. The creation of a Digital Market Portal (DMP), as part of the larger market stack, would facilitate this integration.

Additionally, the proposal includes the implementation of Market Intelligence and Statistical (MIS) modeling to provide real-time information on sowing patterns, price trends, demand-supply estimations, and financial infrastructure. This would also involve the establishment of working capital pledge loan facilities, supported by the Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt System (e-NWRS) integrated with the portal. This digital ecosystem aims to streamline agricultural supply chains and enhance market efficiencies, though it places significant emphasis on private sector participation in the process.

The proposed reforms at the village, Gram Panchayat (GP), or small town levels focus on developing essential post-harvest management and marketing infrastructure. This includes the establishment of collection and purchase centers, primary and secondary value-addition facilities, drying and packaging units, quality testing labs, and Common Agribusiness Centres-cum-Marketplaces (CACMP) for primary Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), the creation of small storage facilities, deep freezers etc.

At the district or regional level, the proposal aims to develop advanced infrastructure and facilities focused on processing and export. This includes establishing cold chain facilities that connect production at the backend with agro-industries, markets, and consumers at the front end. The infrastructure would also support value addition through the creation of pack houses, high-standard quality testing laboratories that meet international standards, as well as facilities for labeling, branding, and other value-enhancing processes.

The proposed reforms are aimed at redesigning a value chain-based capacity-building framework to integrate both the private and public sectors through advanced technologies such as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). However, these reforms also propose deregulation, effectively allowing the private sector—specifically, corporate agribusinesses—to establish dominance over production, processing, and marketing. Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are envisioned as key players in this system, tasked with bypassing middlemen and traders to ensure a smooth and direct supply of raw materials to corporate industries, trade, and export channels. This approach risks consolidating control within large corporations, potentially marginalising small producers and limiting their bargaining power in the market.

The proposals include facilitating futures trading and access to the stock market through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), which could pave the way for corporate control over the domestic agriculture and food industry. This shift risks entangling farmers with the influence of International Finance Capital and Monopoly Capital (IFC-MC). The potential consequences are dire: increased indebtedness among agrarian communities, forced migration in search of livelihoods, rising unemployment and tragically, an escalation in peasant suicides. By prioritizing corporate interests and financial speculation over farmer welfare, these reforms could exacerbate the economic vulnerabilities already faced by rural populations.

Instead of proposing an alternative development policy that would protect the interests of working people—especially farmers and agricultural workers—by promoting producer cooperatives and collectives to develop agro-processing industries, marketing network and exportthrough government and public sector support, including credit and infrastructure development, the NAMP suggests Contract Farming (CF) with corporate industries, trade houses, and exporters as the solution to bridge the gap in market access and achieve optimum price realization. This approach essentially places farmers in a vulnerable position, much like "keeping the wolf to safeguard the chicken." Rather than empowering small producers the NAMP proposes a system that risks further consolidating power in the hands of large corporations, potentially leading to greater exploitation of farmers.

The proposed reforms seek to encroach upon the rights of state governments over agriculture, land, industry, and markets—areas that fall under the state list as per the Constitution of India. The National Agricultural Marketing Policy (NAMP) is not an independent initiative but is deeply intertwined with other pro-corporate reforms, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act, the Digital Agriculture Mission, the National Cooperation Policy, and the One Nation One Election Bill, among others.

The proposal suggests the creation of an empowered agricultural marketing reform committee, similar to the GST committee, which includes State Agriculture Ministers as members. This committee, chaired by the Additional Secretary (Marketing) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MA&FW), would be tasked with pressuring State Governments to adopt the provisions of the Unified National Market (UNM) within their respective Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts. It would also advocate for a single licensing, registration, and fee system, ultimately aiming to integrate the country’s agricultural marketing ecosystem into the corporate-driven agenda of "One Nation, One Market." Furthermore, the proposal includes the provision of "Appreciation Letters" or "Certificates of Excellence" to the top-performing State Agriculture Ministers every six months, in an effort to incentivize the adoption of these reforms. This could further centralize control, undermining state autonomy and the interests of farmers in favor of corporate agendas.

The NDA-3 government, led by the BJP-RSS combine, is under the influence of corporate forces and, through the National Agricultural Marketing Policy (NAMP), has proposed to erode the federal rights of State Governments. The policy facilitates the domination and control of multinational corporations (MNCs) and International Finance Capital over domestic agricultural production and the food industry, thereby threatening India’s food security and compromising its sovereignty.

It is crucial for all political parties to clarify their stance on the proposed NAMP, as it has the potential to transform India from a federal republic of union government with autonomous state governments into a unitary nation, with empowered central government with subordinate state governments under the control of corporate interests and international finance capital.