Anil Ghanwat, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws, on Monday said that the Indian economy will face a crisis if a law is made for guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

ANI reported that his remarks came amid demands by protesting farmers for legislation on MSP even as they hailed the decision for withdrawal of three farm laws.

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Speaking to ANI, Ghanwat said, “If there is going to be a law (on MSP), we (India) will face a crisis. With the law, if the (procurement) process goes down someday, no one will be able to buy the produce as procuring it at a price lower than the MSP will be illegal and they (traders) will be put in jails for it.”

Ghanwat, who is president of Shetkari Sangathan, said both the central government and the farmer leaders should think of some other way to boost farm incomes and that a law on MSP is not a solution.

“It’s going to be a crisis because not only the traders will be harmed but also the stockists and everybody else related to it. Even the commodity market will be disturbed. It will be distorted,” he said.

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“We are not against MSP, but open-ended procurement is a problem. We require 41 lakh tonnes of grains for buffer stock but procured 110 lakh tonnes. If MSP law is made, all farmers will demand MSP for their crops and no one will be in a position to earn anything out of that,” he added.

Ghanwat also termed the move to repeal the three farm laws as “unfortunate”.

“Farmers were demanding reforms for the last 40 years. This is not a good step. The existing system of agriculture is not enough,” he said.

“Even if the new laws which were introduced were not very perfect, there were some flaws which needed to be corrected. I think this government had the will to reform agriculture as the earlier governments didn’t have the political will. I hope another committee will be formed comprising of opposition leaders and farm leaders from all states and then new farm laws are discussed in the parliament and should be introduced,” he added.