How India's tough face at WTO Ministerial conference protected farmers, food security | Explained

livemint.com:

13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO concluded with the acceptance of the Abu Dhabi Declaration on Saturday, but missed an agreement in either fisheries or agriculture, as India decided to defend its farmer-friendly policies. “Our objective was that our farmers and our fishermen should not face any kind of harm, no crisis should come, and in that, we successfully did not allow any such decision to be taken that would harm any farmer or fishermen," Union Minister Piyush Goyal said after the conference.

The developed nations were demanding that India make some policy changes to allow them easy market access for their farm produce. The demands included reductions in domestic support on agriculture for Indian farmers like the minimum support price (MSP), public stockholding for food security, subsidies for fisheries, etc.

India has maintained that public stockholding (PSH) is crucial for the country for its welfare programs like Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) which provides free ration to over 80 crore people and the National Food Security Act (NFSA). To make this dry ration available, the government purchases agricultural produce from farmers at the MSP to assure them a minimum income and protect them from market uncertainties.

This demand has a history as in 2013, the Manmohan Singh government came under pressure at the Ninth Ministerial Conference (MC9) in Bali and agreed to a “peace clause" as an interim solution for the public stockholding for food security. The government further added that they will find a permanent solution by the 11th Ministerial Conference in 2017.