Lok Sabha Question No. 2580 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-09
Subject: Task Force on Structural Reforms
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shobha Karandlaje

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2580 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 9 TH  JULY, 2019

## TASK FORCE ON STRUCTURAL REFORMS

2580.    KUMARI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी

be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has announced the creation of a high-level task force on structural reforms in agriculture which would boost private investment, strengthen logistics and provide ample market support to the farmers;
- (b) if so, the details thereof including its composition;
- (c) the details of the Terms of Reference/ Mandate of the Task Force and the time by which it is likely to submit its Report;
- (d) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  involve  farmers  in  post-harvest  technology through innovative progarmmes to double farmers income and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the steps being taken by the Government to devise modalities for extending credit to marginal  farmers, sharecroppers  and  landless  agricultural labourers along  with the innovative steps being taken by the Government to reduce agrarian distress in the country?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) & (b):    Yes Sir.  The Government has constituted a High Powered Committee of Chief Ministers  for  'Transformation  of  Indian  Agriculture'  on  01.07.2019  with  the  following composition:
- (c): The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committee is as follows:
- (i) To discuss measures for transformation of agriculture and raising farmers' income and suggest modalities for adoption and time bound implementation of following reforms by States/ UTs:
- a) The.....State/ Union Territory 'Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion &  Facilitation)  Act,  2017'(APLM  Act,  2017)  circulated  by  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and Farmers' Welfare, Government of India (GoI) to States/UTs.
- b)  The ......State/  Union  Territory  'Agricultural  Produce  and  livestock,  Contract  Farming and Services (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2018' circulated by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GoI to States/UTs.
- (ii) To examine various provisions of Essential Commodity Act (ECA), 1955 and situations that  requires ECA. To suggest changes in the ECA to attract private investments in agricultural marketing and infrastructure.
- (iii)  To suggest mechanism for linking of market reforms with National Agricultural Market (e-NAM), GRAM and other relevant Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
- (iv)  To  suggest  policy  measures  to  (a) boost  agricultural  export  (b)  raise  growth  in  food processing (c) attract investments in modern market infrastructure, value chains and logistics.
- (v)  To  suggest  measures  to  upgrade  agri-technology  to  global  standards  and  improve access of farmers to quality seed, plant propagation material and farm machinery in agriculturally advance countries.
- (vi)  To  propose  any  other  relevant  reforms  for  transformation  of  agriculture  sector  and raising farmers' income.

- i)   Sh. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, Maharashtra :

Convenor

- ii)  Sh. H.D. Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister, Karnataka     :

Member

iii) Sh. Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister, Haryana       :

Member

iv) Sh. Pema Khandu, Chief Minister, Arunachal Pradesh :

Member

v)  Sh. Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat                    :

Member

vi) Sh. Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh    :

Member

vii) Sh. Kamal Nath, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh     :

Member

viii) Sh. Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister, Agriculture, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, GoI              :

Member

ix) Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog   :

Member-Secretary

The Committee has to submit its report within two months of the date of notification of the Committee.

(d): Various post harvest interventions have already been rolled out, inter-alia include as under:

(i)   The Government is implementing Mission of Integrated Development of Horticulture for production and post harvest infrastructure of Horticulture crops.

(ii)  Realizing the potential of organic farming in the North Eastern Region of the country, a Central  Sector  Scheme  namely  'Mission  Organic  Value  Chain  Development  for  North Eastern  Region'(MOVCDNER)  aims at development of certified organic  production  in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification and creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative. The assistance under this scheme is provided for cluster development, on/off farm input production, supply of seeds/ planting  materials,  setting  up  of  functional  infrastructure,  establishment  of  integrated processing  unit,  refrigerated  transportation,  pre-cooling  /cold  stores  chamber,  branding labeling and packaging, hiring of space, hand holdings, organic certification through third party, mobilization of farmers/processors etc.

(iii)  A  capital  investment  subsidy sub-scheme 'Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)' of  Integrated  Scheme  for  Agricultural  Marketing  (ISAM)  with  two  distinct  marketing infrastructure  components  either  (i)  Storage  Infrastructure  in  rural  area  (ii)  other  than storage  infrastructure  is  implemented  to  develop  Agricultural  Marketing  Infrastructure including Storage infrastructure.

(iv) In order to establishing a marketing system  for farmers, the Government  is implementing National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme for transparent price discovery for remunerative prices for the farmers for their produce through competitive online bidding system.  So  far,  585  wholesale  regulated  markets  of  16  States  and  02  UTs  have  been integrated with e-NAM platform. Under the scheme, apart from providing technical support, financial assistance upto Rs. 75 lakh per mandi for electronic weighing scale, computer IT equipments, assaying equipments, cleaning/ sorting/ grading equipments and biocomposting unit is also provided to States/Union Territories (UTs).

(v)  The  Government  has  circulated  to  States/Union  Territories  (UTs)  for  adoption  'The Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017', which provides  for  alternate  marketing  channels  such  as  setting  up  of  private  markets,  direct marketing, farmer-consumer markets, special commodity markets, declaring warehouses/silos/cold storages or such structures as market sub yards to facilitate farmers in marketing their produce at competitive and remunerative prices.

(vi)  In order to optimise the use of scarce resources and mitigate the uncertainty in price and marketing, the Government has formulated and released a progressive and facilitative Model  Act  'The  ----State/  UT  Agricultural  Produce  &  Livestock  Contract  Farming  and Services  (Promotion  &  Facilitation)  Act,  2018'  in  May,  2018  for  its  adoption  by  the states/Union Territories (UTs). The aforesaid Model Contract Farming Act covers the entire value  and  supply  chain  from  pre-production  to  post  harvest  marketing  including  services contract for the agricultural produce and livestock.

(vii)  A  crop  insurance scheme namely Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from Kharif 2016 season has been launched to provide better insurance coverage to crops for risk  mitigation.  This  scheme  provides  insurance  cover  for  all  stages  of  the  crop  cycle including post-harvest risks in specified instances

(e): To  ensure  availability  of  credit  at  concessional  rates  of  interest  to  all  farmers, Government has launched a campaign to bring all farmers outside the fold of institutional credit, by way of saturation of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs). With a view to bring all left out farmers  in  the  country  into  the  fold  of  institutional  credit,  Government  has  simplified  the procedure for availing loans through KCCs namely:

- a) Activities  relating  to  Animal  Husbandry  and  Fisheries  included  in  KCC  -  benefits  of Interest Subvention (IS) and Prompt Repayment Incentive (PRI) also extended
- b) Indian  Banker's  Association  has  waived  off  processing  fee,  inspection,  ledger  folio charges and all other service charges for renewal/fresh issue of KCC.
- c) RBI has raised the collateral free existing agriculture loan limit from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1.60 lakh.

Kisan Credit Card (KCC) has been extended to the farmers practicing animal husbandry and  fisheries  related  activities  together  with  Interest  Subvention  as  prompt  repayment incentive.

Bringing  more  farmers  within  the  institutional credit  fold  is a  priority  area  of  the Government and to achieve this goal, annual target for the flow of credit to the agriculture sector  are  set  which  the  banks  have  been  surpassing  every  year.  The  current  year's agriculture credit flow target has been set at Rs. 13.50 lakh crore.

Further, to extend the reach of Institutional Credit to more and more farmers is ,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. Further, under Interest Subvention Scheme 2018-19, in  order  to  provide  relief  to  the  farmers  on  occurrence  of  natural  calamities,  the  interest subvention  of  2%  shall  continue  to  be  available  to  banks  for  the  first  year  on  the restructured  amount.  In  order  to  discourage  distress  sale  by  farmers  and  to  encourage them  to  store  their  produce  in  warehouses  against  negotiable  receipts,  the  benefit  of interest subvention are available to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Card for a further period of upto six months post harvest on the same rate as available to crop loan.

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