Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : After the announcement of the landmark decisions by the Government of India for reforms in the agricultural sector for raising the income of the farmers as part of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the President of India on June 5, 2020, promulgated two Ordinances with the aim of giving a boost to rural India for farmers engaged in agriculture and allied activities. They are : 1. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020 and 2. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020
The Central Government has been making comprehensive interventions to impart efficiency and effectiveness to agricultural marketing, with an objective of raising the income of the farmers. By recognising the bottlenecks preventing the holistic development of marketing of the agriculture produce, the Government drafted and circulated the Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (APLM) Act 2017, and also the Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Contract Farming Act of 2018, for adoption by the states.
When the whole ecosystem of agriculture and its allied activities was tested during the COVID-19 crises, it reconfirmed the necessity for the Central Government to speed up the reform process and to come up with a national legal facilitative ecosystem to improve intra-state and inter-state trade of agriculture produce. The Government of India also recognised the need for the farmer to sell agriculture produce at a place of his choice at a better price by increasing the number of prospective buyers.
“The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020” will provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers’ produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels. It will promote efficient, transparent, and barrier-free inter–State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers’ produce outside the physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations.
“The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020” will provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri- business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, according to a PIB release.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on June 5, 2020, wrote to all the Chief Ministers informing them of the Ordinances and solicited their cooperation in implementation of the reforms. He stressed the need for their continued support in the development and growth of the agriculture sector in the new reformed environment.