Union minister says India balances WTO commitments, farmer interests

Bathinda: Amid demands for India's withdrawal from the WTO agreement, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, said the central govt had taken several steps to protect the interests of farmers, including small ones, in the context of WTO provisions on domestic support and subsidies.
Financial support for farmers, including small ones, is also provided through schemes, ensuring continued govt procurement and food distribution while adhering to WTO guidelines, he said.
Protesting farmers have been demanding that India withdraw from WTO agreements and listed it in their charters. Chouhan's reply states that as per World Trade Organisatio'n (WTO) agreement on agriculture, all members can provide a market price support (MPS), which includes the procurement of crops by the govt at applied administered prices, or MSP, in the case of India. Such support is required to be notified to WTO on an annual basis. Further, it needs to be ensured that India being a developing country member, product-specific support should be within the de-minimis limit, i.e 10% of the value of production of the respective crop. A similar de-minimis limit of 10% also applies to non-product-specific support across the agriculture sector.
The minister was responding to questions by MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, who asked whether the govt has taken steps to protect small farmers from WTO-imposed restrictions on MSP and subsidies, the steps taken to safeguard India's Public Distribution System (PDS) from WTO challenges, whether alternative trade policies or agreements have been explored to shield Indian agriculture from global competition, and the details of the budget allocated for subsidies, MSP, and trade negotiations along with their impact on small farmers' income during the last five years.