Lok Sabha Question No. 2490 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-01-02
Subject: Protection of Farmers from Exploitation
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: TARIQ ANWAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2490

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE  2 ND  JANUARY, 2018

## PROTECTION OF FARMERS FROM EXPLOITATION

2490.  SHRI TARIQ ANWAR:

Will  the  Minister  of  AGRICULTURE  AND  FARMERS  WELFARE      ‡ãðŠãäÓã एवं  कसान कयाण ½ãâ¨ããè be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is contemplating formulation of a scheme in future for protecting the farmers from exploitation by the middlemen and capitalists;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the reasons due to which the farmers are not getting the minimum support price fixed by the Government; and
- (d) whether the Government is intent on taking any concrete initiative for the farmers in future, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF  STATE IN THE  MINISTRY OF  AGRICULTURE AND  FARMERS  WELFARE

‡ãðŠãäÓã एवं  कसान  कयाण ½ãâ¨ããÊã¾ã  ½ãñâ  Àã·¾ã  ½ãâ¨ããè (  SHRI PARSHOTTAM RUPALA)

- (a) & (b): The  Government  has  circulated  a  new  model  Act  'The  Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion  & Facilitation) Act, 2017' in April, 2017 for its  adoption  by  States/UTs.  The  model  Act  provides  for  direct  marketing,  farmerconsumer  markets,  which  aims  to  reduce  the  number  of  intermediaries  between producer and buyer for facilitating better remunerative prices for farmers' produce. The Government is also implementing a scheme called National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) for transparent price discovery with competitive and remunerative price for the farmers' produce  through  online  bidding  system,  which  will  help  protect  the  farmers  from exploitation by the middlemen and capitalists.
- (c): Minimum Support Price (MSP) is ensured to the farmers for procurement of fair and average quality produce from them by the Government agencies under Minimum Price  Support  Scheme.  However,  the  trading  in  the  wholesale  agriculture  produce market is different as the price is determined by the demand and supply forces based on the quality of the produce and may vary from MSP.

(d): The Government is taking following initiatives for the farmers:

(i) Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme by which the farmers can know the major and minor  nutrients  available  in  their  soils  which  will  ensure  judicious  use  of  fertiliser application and reduce cost of inputs and improve soil fertility.

(ii) Neem  Coated  Urea  is  being  promoted  to  regulate  use of    urea,  enhance  its availability  to  the  crop  and  reduce  cost  of  fertilizer  application.  The  entire  quantity  of domestically manufactured and imported urea is now neem coated.

(iii) Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is being implemented with a view to promote organic farming in the country.  This will improve soil health and organic matter content and increase net income of the farmer so as to realise premium prices.

(iv) The  Pradhan  Mantri  Krishi  Sinchai  Yojana  (PMKSY)  is  being  implemented  to expand cultivated  area  with  assured  irrigation,  reduce  wastage  of  water  and  improve water use efficiency.

(v) The  National  Agriculture  Market  scheme  (e-NAM)  envisages  providing  emarketing  platform  at  national  level  for  transparency  in  bidding  and  better  price discovery to enable farmers in getting remunerative prices for their produce.

(vi) Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is  available to the farmers at low rates of premium. This scheme would provide insurance cover for all stages of the crop cycle including post-harvest risks in specified instances.

(vii)  The Government provides interest subvention of 3% on short-term crop loans up to Rs.3.00  lakh.    Presently,  loan  is  available  to  farmers  at  an  interest  rate  of  7%  per annum, which gets reduced to 4% on prompt repayment.

(viii)    Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) enables State Governments to implement the  scheme  as  per  their  requirement  in  areas  which  requires  focused  attention  for increasing  production  and  productivity. The  States  have  been  provided  flexibility  and autonomy for selection, planning approval and execution of projects/programs under the scheme as per their need, priorities and agro-climate requirements.

(ix)    Under  National  Food  Security  Mission  (NFSM),  a  Centrally  Sponsored  scheme, assistance is provided to farmers for distribution of Seeds (HYVs/Hybrids), production of seeds (only in pulses), INM and IPM techniques, resource conservation technologies/tools/farm mechanization, efficient water application tools, cropping system based trainings to farmers and also assistance for value addition.

(x)    National  Mission  on  Oilseeds  and  Oil  Palm  (NMOOP)  programme,  is  being implemented since 2014-15 with the objective of increasing production and productivity of  oilseeds  for  meeting  the  domestic  requirement  of  vegetable  oil.  The  various interventions of  this  mission  are  implemented  through  the  State  Department  of Agriculture/Horticulture.

(xi)  Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme,  is  being  implemented  w.e.f.  2014-15,  for  holistic  growth  of  the  horticulture sector  covering  fruits,  vegetable,  root  and  tuber  crops,  mushrooms,  spices,  flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo. The Mission subsumes national Horticulture  Mission  (NHM),  Horticulture  Mission  for  North  East  &  Himalayan  States (HMNEH), National Horticulture Board (NHB), Coconut Development Board (CDB) and Central Institute for Horticulture (CIH), Nagaland. All States and UTs are covered under MIDH.

The other steps taken by the Government for farmers are as under:

(i) The Government has  drafted a  new model Agricultural  Produce  and  Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017, which was circulated on 24.04.2017 for adoption by the States through legislation of their respective Acts. The Act provides the options  of  alternate  markets  beyond  the  existing  APMC  regulated  market  yards including private markets, direct marketing, farmer-consumer markets, special commodity  markets,  declaring  warehouses/silos/cold  storages  or  such  structures  as market sub yards and Market Yards of National Importance (MNI) so as to reduce the number of intermediaries between producer and buyer and increase the share of the farmer in consumer's rupee.

(ii) The  Government undertakes procurement  of  wheat  and  paddy  under  its  'MSP operations'. In addition, Government implements Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement  of  agricultural  and  horticultural  commodities  not  covered  under  the Minimum Price Support Scheme on the request of State/UT Government. The MIS is implemented in order to protect the growers of these commodities from making distress sale  in  the  event  of  bumper  crop  when  the  prices  tend  to  fall  below  the  economic level/cost of production.

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