President promulgates agriculture ordinances aimed at boosting income of farmers

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday promulgated three ordinances announced by the government earlier this week to usher in agricultural reforms for raising the income of the farmers and giving them more freedom to sell their produce.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday promulgated three ordinances announced by the government earlier this week to usher in agricultural reforms for raising the income of the farmers and giving them more freedom to sell their produce. The President promulgated Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance Act, 2020.

An official release said that the central government has been making comprehensive interventions to impart efficiency and effectiveness to agricultural marketing, with the aim of raising the income of the farmers. It said that recognizing 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.

The release said that 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 interstate trade of agriculture produce. "The Government of India also recognized 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. A facilitative framework was also considered necessary for farming agreements," the release said.

It said 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 release said.

It said that 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 agribusiness 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. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today wrote to all the chief ministers informing them of the ordinances and solicited their cooperation in the 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, the release said. (ANI)

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