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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Foreign trade Policy 04-09  New sectoral initiatives Agriculture and Village Industries Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana earmarking of funds under ASIDE for AEZ

6. 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

7. 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?

8. Agribusiness  Agriculture and Agribusiness  Value Addition  Capital and Skill intensive  Market orientation

9. 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

10. Impact of AoA  On the middle class consumers  On producers  On resource poor consumers  Per capita availability of food grains is actually declining

11. 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?

12. Contract farming ???  Contracts – presuppose equality and options  Negotiating Power  Negotiation Skills  Farmers Organizations : Co-operatives  Is a symbiotic relationship possible

13. 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

14. 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!