The SKM asked the central government to put pressure on the developed countries to keep agriculture out of the WTO in the 13th ministerial conference.India’s food security and price support programmes are subjects of repeated disputes at the WTO. Major farm produce exporting countries have proposed a 50% cut by the end of 2034 in the global level of WTO members’ entitlements to support agriculture. The SKM claimed that the issue of public stockholding was most critical for India since unemployment, poverty, and rural-to-urban distress migration had created precarious situation in the countryside over 10 years, needing India to defend its right to protect its farmers for national food security.
The morcha said: “No international institution or agreement can be allowed to come in the way.” India’s food-stocking programme for the PDS (public distribution system) is exempted from challenge by the WTO members under a temporary peace clause that is likely to be upturned. If so, the SKM wants India to quit the WTO to prevent its regulations from interfering with the food security programmes and agricultural production. It wants India to take less developed countries along in a collective fight for a permanent solution that helps maintain and strengthen their farm-support schemes.
At the Golden Temple in Amritsar, farmers parked their tractors facing Delhi to protest the Haryana action. Farmer unionist Varpal Singh said: “We will hold a mahapanchayat at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on March 14, come what may.”