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Cabinet clears ordinances for agriculture market reforms
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SME Times News Bureau | 04 Jun, 2020
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval to three landmark
decisions for helping farmers and transforming the agriculture sector,
which include amendment to the Essential Commodities Act, Farming
Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020
and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price
Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020.
Briefing on the
decisions taken in the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar
said the ordinance will create an ecosystem where farmers and traders
will enjoy freedom of choice of sale and purchase of agri-produce.
The
Minister said the country has approximately 14 crore farmers and 85 per
cent of them do not get remunerative prices for their produce, but
these reforms will enable them to get better prices.
With the
amendment to the Essential Commodities Act, commodities such as cereals,
pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes will be removed from
the list of essential commodities. The government says this will remove
fears of private investors about excessive regulatory interference in
their business operations.
Tomar said Farming Produce Trade and
Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance will promote
barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the
physical premises of markets notified under the state Agricultural
Produce Marketing legislations. "This is a historic step in unlocking
the vastly regulated agriculture markets in the country," said the
Minister.
There are restrictions on farmers for selling
agri-produce outside the notified APMC market yards. The farmers are
also restricted to sell the produce only to the registered licensees of
state governments.
Barriers exist in free-flow of agricultural
produce between various states owing to the prevalence of various APMC
laws enacted by the state governments.
The ordinance basically
aims at creating additional trading opportunities outside the APMC
market yards to help farmers get remunerative prices due to additional
competition.
"The ordinance will certainly pave the way for creating One India, One Agriculture Market", said the Agriculture Ministry.
Tomar
said The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price
Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance will empower farmers for engaging
with processors, wholesalers, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers
and exporters on a level-playing field without any fear of exploitation.
This
Ordinance will act as a catalyst to attract private sector investment
for building supply chains for Indian farm produce across global
markets. Farmers will get access to technology and advice for high-value
agriculture products and get ready market for such produce, said
Agriculture Ministry in a statement.
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