Up Ease of Doing Agriculture Stakes

Context: Apart from the improvement in agricultural infrastructure through reforms introduced in fiscal stimulus packages, policies also need to be tweaked to enable a sustained increase in incomes for farmers and farmworkers.

Agricultural Reforms in Fiscal Stimulus Package

• The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance:

• Regulation of contract farming.
• Closer interface between farmers and food processors.
• Facilitate a cropping pattern and quality specification in line markets demand.
• Backward integration by big retailers to justify long-term investments.
• Efficiencies and disintermediation of the supply chain by reducing the role of middlemen.
• Reduced marketing risk for farmers due to agreed terms.
• Increase in farmers income. 
• Promote food processing for exports.

•  Ordinance allowing farmers to sell goods outside APMCs

• Frees the vastly regulated agriculture market. 
• Farmers with surplus produce will benefit from better prices and can reduce their marketing costs. 
• National Agriculture Market (eNAM)’s full potential can be realised.
• Traditional mandis will continue to play an important role. 

• Essential Commodities Act, 1955

• Deregulate of agri-commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion, and potatoes.
• Removal of stockholding limits except in natural calamities, war, and extraordinary price rise

Way Forward

• Agriculture Council: as a statutory framework on the lines of the GST Council, will help in better coordination and uniformity in regulations and resolving differences.
• ICAR, agricultural universities, and KVK, should work with industry and farmers by establishing a formal interface mechanism between technology innovators and its end users.
• Ease of doing agriculture: a quantifiable index for measuring agricultural improvements.