Why farmer coalition SKM opposes Centre's National Cooperation Policy 2025

Indian Express

2 days ago

The National Cooperation Policy (NCP) 2025, recently unveiled by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, has invited sharp criticism from farmer unions.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a national coalition of several farmers' organisations, has said that the policy violates the federal structure of the Constitution by attempting to centralise control over cooperative societies, a domain that constitutionally belongs to the states.
Furthermore, SKM alleges that the NCP 2025 lacks any real vision to protect the rights and livelihoods of farmers, workers, and marginalised communities, and is instead a backdoor mechanism to facilitate the entry of corporations into agriculture.
The farmers' coalition has called upon political parties, state governments, and the people of India to resist what it calls an 'attack on cooperative federalism.'
The National Cooperation Policy 2025, introduced by Shah on July 24, aims to integrate 50 crore people into the cooperative sector and, as per the statement issued by the Cooperation Ministry, 'be a milestone in the cooperative movement of India for the next two decades from 2025-45'.
Among other things, the notification gives expansive jurisdiction to the new Cooperation Ministry, from framing policy to coordinating cooperation activities across sectors and states to training personnel of cooperative departments and institutions. With a vision of 'Sahakar se Samriddhi' (Prosperity through Cooperation), the NCP 2025 is meant to promote 'cooperative-based economic development model', the notification states.
There are three broad lines of criticism against the policy.
Attack on federalism: Cooperative societies come under Entry 32 of the State List (List II) of the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution. This gives state governments exclusive power to legislate and regulate cooperatives operating within their territory.
The Supreme Court in 2021 struck down parts of the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011, which gave the Centre jurisdiction over cooperative societies operating within a state. A Bench of Justices R F Nariman, K M Joseph and B R Gavai had stated that the subject matter fell 'belongs wholly and exclusively to the State legislatures to legislate upon' and any change would require the ratification by at least one-half of the state legislatures as per Article 368(2) of the Constitution.
The SKM has called this new policy the Centre's 'planned attack' on federalism since it bypasses the authority of state governments, and was introduced without their ratification.
Backdoor for corporations: This centralisation of powers, the SKM says, is meant to provide corporations with a foothold into the agriculture sector in the guise of 'cooperative development'.
'SKM warns that the policy aims to integrate farmers into corporate-dominated systems through cooperative societies and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), thereby allowing agribusinesses to dictate prices and markets,' said Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Bharti Kisan union (BKU) Dakaunda. 'This corporate takeover will lead to widespread exploitation of farmers, workers, and all those engaged in agriculture, services, trade, and manufacturing,' he added.
While the text of the policy itself does not mention corporations, it delineates several functional avenues — such as entry into emerging sectors, cooperative-led export platforms, and digital ecosystems — that are typically dominated by corporate entities. This, critics say, will open the door for indirect corporate involvement through service provision, platform partnerships, infrastructure development, and technology integration.
Not doing enough for the marginalised: According to the SKM, the NCP 2025 lacks any concrete perspective to protect the rights of farmers and workers, particularly regarding livelihood issues, Minimum Support Price (MSP), minimum wage, and fair surplus distribution from cooperatives.
The policy has no roadmap for modernising agriculture, establishing agro-based industries, or building cooperative marketing networks. It also ignores the need for producer and consumer cooperatives, collective farming, and the use of science and technology to enhance productivity and reduce costs. While the policy makes tall claims about helping tribals, Dalits, and women, it offers no concrete measures for their empowerment or welfare, SKM said.
SKM urges the Union Government to empower state governments, respect Cooperative Federalism, and allocate 50% of Centre's resources to support modernisation of cooperatives at the state level. Corporate entry into agriculture and agro-industries should be strictly regulated to ensure MSP for farmers and minimum wages for workers.
To resist NCP 2025, the SKM is mobilising farmers and workers across India. Having already called for a nationwide protest on August 13, 2025, under the banner 'Corporations Quit India', SKM has now appealed to all political parties and state governments to join the protest to oppose the policy.
The August 13 agitation also aims to press for long-standing demands such as guaranteed MSP based on the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, loan waivers, a halt to privatisation and forced land acquisitions, opposition to WTO provisions, and resistance to the India-US trade deal.