The high-level committee of Chief Ministers (CMs) on Transformation of Agriculture on Thursday deliberated, among others, the utility of the Essential Commodity Act (ECA), 1955.
The Centre, which is of the view that the ECA, in its present form, is deterring investment in agricultural marketing as it imposes stocking limits, saw support coming from Opposition quarters with Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath favouring scrapping the legislation.
Nath’s Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani underlined the need for reforms in the agriculture market mechanisms and relaxing the norms in the legislation for the benefit of small traders and farmers.
While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sent his views in writing, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khundu stressed on the need for doing away with the middlemen menace in the state where local farm and horticulture produces are bought at throwaway prices but sold at higher prices outside the State.
The committee is expected to look at a policy directive in this regard so that investors have enough confidence about the provisions of the Act.
The committee also emphasised the need to use appropriate technology platforms such as satellites and drones from sowing to marketing and contract farming to maximise the output and to reach out small and marginal farmers.
At its first meeting, organised by the Niti AAyog, the Chief Ministers also discussed the reforms in Agriculture Marketing Produce Committees (APMCs) and contract farming and called for radical reforms to transform agriculture with massive thrusts on private investments, technological innovation and robust marketing across the country to boost farmers’ income.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also the convener of the committee, said the committee has finalised Terms of Reference (ToR), and States have been asked to give their feedback by August 7. The next meeting of the committee will be on August 16. The Maharashtra Chief Minister further added the terms of reference also include making sure that more farmers in the States get institutional loans.
Agriculture being the State subject, the committee has deliberated upon ways to incentivise States to fully implement the major reforms in agriculture introduced in the past including some key legislations to attract private investments in the sector at its first meeting.
According to Fadnavis, the committee will come up with a background paper and a comprehensive agriculture policy to transform the sector after taking all states on board. “The policy will focus on ways to enhance investment credit in the sector,” he added.
At the meeting, Fadnavis said though the credit disbursal for the farm sector may exceed Rs 13 lakh crore in 2019-20, the agricultural investment credit is
still too low.
Chief ministers of Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat, Union Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand and Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant attended the meeting.