New setting, old demands: Centre, farmers to revive stalled discussions

With MSP talks set to resume this week, the Centre prepares to pitch assured pulses procurement - aligning with Budget policies - to protesting farmers

A few days from now, the central government will resume stalled talks with farmer groups who are demanding a legal guarantee on minimum support price for crops. The resumption of dialogue between the Centre and farmers — a significant section of whom belong to Punjab, a state governed by the Aam Aadmi Party — will come just days after the party’s crushing defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections. 

Last month, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been sitting on a fast-unto-death on the border between Punjab and Haryana, had agreed to receive medical aid after a top-ranking Union government official assured him that talks will resume on February 14. Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann government had been urging the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government to restart talks and resolve the deadlock.

  Dallewal is part of two offshoot groups of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), known as SKM (apolitical) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM). The SKM was a coalition of over 100 farmer groups that spearheaded the year-long protest at Delhi’s borders against the now-repealed three farm laws.

  Last year, talks with this breakaway SKM faction broke down after its leaders rejected the Centre’s offer of 100 per cent assured procurement of five crops at MSP, conditional on farmers shifting away from paddy and wheat cultivation. The offer for renewed discussions came after farmers attempting to march on Delhi were stopped, leading to clashes with police at the Haryana-Punjab border.

  In the earlier negotiations, the Centre was represented by a team of Union ministers, including Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, while farmers were led by their representatives. Officials from the Punjab government also participated.

Unlike in 2020, the 2024 talks were held in Chandigarh, with the Punjab government acting as a mediator.

  Centre’s proposal

  The Centre proposed in February 2024 to purchase the entire output of masoor, urad, arhar (all pulses), maize, and cotton at MSP for the next five years. Just months before last year’s talks, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had launched a national portal, ‘e-Samriddhi,’ allowing farmers to sell their tur produce at MSP or market prices. He had indicated that similar provisions would be extended to other crops. 

Procurement of pulses from farmers registered on the portal is handled by cooperative majors National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) and the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF). These central nodal agencies procure produce on behalf of the government to maintain a buffer stock under the price stabilisation fund (PSF)  and intervene under the price support scheme when market rates fall below MSP.

  In the recently concluded kharif season, the Centre, through its agencies, procured around 1.4 million tonnes of soybean — the highest-ever such purchase — at MSP after prices dropped to record lows.

  Reports suggest the government may attempt to revive its proposal for assured purchases of five pulses while also seeking to convince farmers and the Punjab government of its new draft policy on agricultural marketing.

  Farmers’ demand and Budget

  In the FY26 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of a six-year “Mission for Atma Nirbharta in Pulses”, with a focus on tur, urad, and masoor. She stated that central agencies (NAFED and NCCF) would procure these pulses as much as offered over the next four years from registered farmers who enter into agreements.

  The mission aims to develop and commercialise climate-resilient pulse seeds, enhance protein content, increase productivity, improve post-harvest storage and management, and ensure remunerative prices for farmers. An outlay of Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for the initiative. 

  Coincidentally, the Centre’s proposal in the first round of talks with protesting farmers last year closely mirrors this Budget announcement. Additionally, by maintaining the food subsidy bill for FY26 at Rs 2,03,420 crore — 3.04 per cent higher than the Revised Estimate (RE) for FY25 but 0.9 per cent lower than the Budget Estimate (BE) for FY25 — the government has signalled its intent to continue purchasing wheat and rice at nearly the same levels.  The allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Annadaata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) was increased by 8 per cent to Rs 6,941 crore compared to the RE for FY25.

  PM-AASHA is an umbrella scheme designed to intervene in markets when oilseed or pulse prices fall below MSP. Last year, the Union Cabinet expanded its scope by converging three programmes — price stabilisation fund (PSF), price support scheme (PSS), and market intervention scheme for perishable crops (MIS) — while retaining the existing price deficit payment scheme (PDPS). Previously, the PSF was operated by the Department of Consumer Affairs and had its budget increased to Rs 10,000 crore in FY25 before being scaled down to Rs 7,000 crore in the RE. The FY26 BE has allocated Rs 4,019 crore for the PSF.

  The Union Cabinet last year also decided that under the PSS, the procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds, and copra at MSP would be capped at 25 per cent of national production starting from the 2024-25 season onwards. However, this limit does not apply to tur, urad, and masoor for the 2024-25 season, as the government has committed to 100 per cent procurement of these crops during this period.

  The Centre also renewed and enhanced the existing government guarantee to Rs 45,000 crore for the procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds, and copra at MSP.

  Between the last round of negotiations and the upcoming discussions after nearly a year, the Centre has taken steps toward guaranteeing an assured MSP for select crops. Whether this will be acceptable to the farmers remains to be seen.