Lok Sabha Question No. 105 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-11
Subject: Farm Policies
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: N.K. PREMACHANDRAN

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

## LOK  SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 105

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 11 TH  DECEMBER, 2018

## FARM  POLICIES

105.   SHRI N.K. PREMACHANDRAN:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it has come to the notice of  the  Government  that  the  farmers  are protesting against  anti  farmer  policies  of  the  Government,    if  so,  the  details  of  the  protest    in    various States  and  the  action taken thereon;
- (b) the  details  of  the  action  taken  by  the  Government  to  provide  support  prices  for  the agriculture produce;
- (c) whether  the  Government proposes to  give  fertilizers and  seeds to the farmers at subsidised price and if so, the details of the action taken thereon;
- (d) whether  the  Government proposes  to  declare  moratorium  on  the agricultural loans and initiate action to write off the pending loans and if so, the details of the action taken thereon; and
- (e) the details of the action taken for providing financial assistance to the farmers and  for establishing  a  marketing  system for  selling  of  agricultural  produce  at  a reasonable and good price?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंालय म राय मंी (SHRI  PARSHOTTAM  RUPALA)

- (a): Lok  Sangharsh Morcha (LSM)  has  organised  a  March  from  21-22  November,  2018  in Mumabi,  Maharashtra,  All  Indian  Kisan  Sabha  (AIKS)  &  All  India  Agriculture  Workers  Union (AIAWU) organised 'Long March' from 28 to 29 November, 2018 in Kolkata, West Bengal and All  India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee organised Mega farmers' rally on 29 - 30 November, 2018 in Delhi over demands including Remunerative price for agricultural produce, complete  loan  waiver,  provision  of  employment  for  200  days  under  MGNREGA,  ownership rights over forest land, etc.
- (b): Government has increased the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for all notified Kharif & Rabi  Crops  and  other  commercial  crops  for  the  season  2018-19  with  a  return  of  atleast  50 percent  over  cost  of  production.  This  decision  of  the  Government  was  a  historic  one  as  it redeemed the promise of fixing the MSPs atleast at a level of 50 per cent return over cost of production as announced in the Union Budget 2018-19.

(c):      The following components/ schemes under Sub-Mission on Seeds & Planting Materials (SMSP)  under  National  Mission  on  Agricultural  Extension  and  Technology  (NMAET)  are  in operation for the welfare of farmers in the country.

Seed  Village  Programme:  To  upgrade  the  quality  of  farmer's  saved  seeds,  this component is in operation under Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP). Under this  programme,  the  financial  assistance  for  distribution  of  foundation/certified  seeds  at  50% cost of the seeds for cereal crops and 60% for pulses, oilseeds, fodder and green manure crops for production of quality seeds is available for one acre per farmer.

Certified Seed Production of Pulses, Oilseeds, Fodder and Green Manure crops through Seed Village: In order to encourage the farmers for the taking up certified seed production of Pulses, Oilseeds, Fodder & Green Manure crops in the country, the financial assistance @75% for distribution of foundation seeds of these crops is available to the farmers under component Certified Seed Production of Pulses, Oilseeds, Fodder and Green Manure crops through Seed Village of Sub Mission on Seeds & Planting Material (SMSP). This new component has initiated during the year 2014-15.

(d): RBI  has  issued  master  directions  on  relief  measures  to  be  provided  by  lending institutions  in  areas  affected  by  natural  calamities  including  drought  which,  inter  alia,  include identification of beneficiaries, extending fresh loans and restructuring of existing loans, relaxed security and margin norms, moratorium, etc. The benchmark for restructuring of loans has been reduced from 50% to 33% crop loss, in line with the National Disaster Management Framework. Further, in terms of RBI's Master Circular on Asset Classification, banks are free to restructure and extend the repayment period of loans/ give stress dispensation scheme to any category of borrowers  which  have  come  under  stress  as  per  their  commercial  judgment  and  Board approved loan policy within the broad prudential guidelines prescribed by RBI.

(e): In  order  to  establish  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 bio- composting unit is also provided to States/Union  Territories  (UTs).  So  far,  Rs.  305.85  crore  have  been  released  to  States/UTs under e-NAM scheme.

Further,  In  order to  provide  better marketing facilities to  the farmers, the Government has  released  a  new  model  'The  Agricultural  Produce  and  Livestock  Marketing  (Promotion  & Facilitation)  Act,  2017'  in  April  2017  for  its  adoption  by  States/  UTs.  The  provisions  therein provides  for  alternative  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 & remunerative prices.

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.

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