NEW DELHI: Nearly three years after repealing the reform-oriented farm legal guidelines as a consequence of farmers’ protest, the Centre has now come out with a draft nationwide coverage framework on agriculture advertising and marketing suggesting states to maneuver in direction of a “unified nationwide marketplace for agriculture produce” by single licensing /registration system and single charge.
Allowing organising of personal wholesale markets; allowing wholesale direct buy by processors, exporters, organised retailers, bulk consumers from farm-gate; declaring warehouses/silos /chilly storages as deemed market; permitting institution and operation of personal e-trading platform; single time levy of market charges throughout the state; and rationalization of market charge and fee prices are a few of the different key recommendations of the federal government to reform the agriculture market.
The draft was launched by the agriculture ministry final month searching for feedback from stakeholders for a wider session. It was ready by a committee, arrange underneath the chairmanship of Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, further secretary (advertising and marketing) within the agriculture ministry.
Though states/UTs have began adopting one or the opposite such measures in restricted or uneven method, the draft suggests uniformity throughout the nation and pitches for constituting an “empowered agricultural advertising and marketing reform committee” of state ministers on the traces of such a committee on GST to push the states to undertake the reform provisions.
The draft notes that such a joint panel could assist in constructing consensus among the many states to maneuver in direction of a unified nationwide market, and suggests a “everlasting secretariat” on the traces of the GST empowered committee.
It says the committee could contemplate proposing to convey a legislation for agricultural advertising and marketing, uniform market charge and such different points for the good thing about farmers and barrier free agri-trade with an method of “ease of doing commerce”.
The draft emphasises that the important thing thought behind the proposal is to “construct a vibrant advertising and marketing ecosystem within the nation whereby farmers of all classes discover a market of their alternative to grasp finest worth for his or her produce”.
Recognition of buying and selling licenses of different state (reciprocity of buying and selling licence); de-regulation of perishables exterior the market yard; exemption of market charge on direct sale by farmers; and exemption of market charge on produce introduced from different state for processing are a few of the different suggestion of the draft coverage.
Underlining significance of ongoing concentrate on creation of digital public infrastructure utilizing block-chain expertise, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML) for strengthening the availability chain processes proper from farm to storage, the draft says that the mission of the proposal is to “put in place a mechanism to mitigate the uncertainties of market and worth”.
As such, the draft proposal talks about improvement of an improvised model of e-NAM within the type of Digital Marketing Portal (DMP) as half of a bigger market stack.
It says within the modified advertising and marketing dynamics, there’s a want for creation of end-to-end Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI) and digital infrastructure for “efficient and clear advertising and marketing supply”. “VCCI will result in integration of provide chains and discount of transaction prices,” says the 39-page draft.
Meanwhile, the ministry has already acquired many stakeholders’ recommendations/ feedback on the draft with a number of farmer organisations even demanding its withdrawal by flagging a number of unacceptable factors within the proposal.
“There is not any point out of guaranteeing a remunerative minimal assist worth (MSP) for farmers, which was a central suggestion of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF), chaired by the late M S Swaminathan, and a key difficulty within the nationwide political discourse. Instead, the doc appears to mislead farmers by selling a corporate-driven agenda, emphasizing technical options like blockchain and Value Chain Centric Infrastructure (VCCI),” stated P Krishnaprasad of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), affiliated with the Communist Party of India (CPI), whereas expressing his issues over the draft proposal.
He stated, “The proposals are harmful and have the potential to destroy the prevailing protections which have been put in place to safeguard farmers and small producers from exploitation by giant, monopolistic company pursuits.”
In their written response to the proposed coverage, Rajinder Chaudhary and Kavitha Kuruganti, co-convenors of the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), stated the ministry’s transfer was an try at reviving the “massively rejected” agri-market reforms that had been contained within the “three notorious farm legal guidelines” which needed to be repealed.
“At the outset, we want to state that even a fast look by the doc clearly reveals that it’s an try by the Union authorities to revive its agenda of de-regulating agricultural markets, and leaving the farmers on the mercy of company gamers,” they wrote to the ministry.
They stated, “The draft coverage framework focuses on institutional reforms, and doesn’t specify what the Union authorities will do particularly in direction of bridging advertising and marketing and auxiliary infrastructure gaps by way of financing and supporting state governments.”
