Govt plans major agri reforms post-corona
APMC system being reviewed; PM holds high-level meet
NEW DELHI: Outlining an ambitious post-pandemic agenda for agricultural reform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked his top ministers and bureaucrats to start working on a new set of reforms to cut down on archaic regulations, raise farm-gate prices, unify domestic markets as well as integrate the farm economy into global value chains.
These have been demands by key farmer groups as well as a range of economists and agricultural experts over the years.
The PM suggested these reforms at a high level review meeting on the agricultural sector, which was also attended by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, home minster Amit Shah, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and senior officials. The meeting was in a series of reviews the PM is undertaking on key sectors, in the backdrop of the national lockdown which has adversely affected the economy.
The PM sought further reforms in agricultural marketing, which is a reference to the mandi system that controls buying and selling of farm produce, among other issues. He said he was not averse to bringing “appropriate” new laws or changing old ones to firmly integrate farm markets across the country so that cultivators and traders can transact without restrictions. “Essentially, he wanted one nation, one market,” said a top official familiar with the deliberations of the meeting.
The PM also held a “general discussion” on genetically modified crops, a tricky subject given the widespread opposition to transgenics in the country. “It was a discussion that evaluated the various advantages and disadvantages of transgenics. The PM wanted updates on options to raise productivity, while lowering farming costs,” said the official quoted above. The PM stressed last-mile dissemination of technologies developed by agricultural research bodies.
The Covid pandemic has pressured farm incomes, upending the farm-to-fork supply chain, despite full exemptions to the farm sector. A nationwide curfew caught farmers by surprise on March 24. During its the initial days, labour shortage and empty wholesale markets led farmers to dump new harvest, especially perishables.
Although agriculture accounts for 16.5% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), nearly half the population in the country depends on a farmbased income, underscoring the sector’s importance for livelihoods.
The big focus on Saturday was on new ideas to intervene in the agriculture marketing system so as to make them freer, a second official said. Despite several model laws at the federal level trade in agricultural commodities remains fettered by statespecific legislations