Heralding a new chapter in agricultural market reforms in India, on May 15, 2020, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman made three major announcements under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. (i) enact a central legislation to enable direct purchase of specified commodities – under Entry 42 of the Union List and Entry 33 of the Concurrent List – from the farmers outside the designated APMCs [Agricultural Produce Market Committee]; (ii) enact a Central law on ‘contract farming’ to provide a legal framework for farmers to engage with processors, aggregators, large retailers and exporters in a ‘fair’ and ‘transparent’ manner; (iii) amend the Essential Commodities Act [ECA] [1954] to take off pulses, cereals, edible oil, oil seeds, onions and potatoes from the purview of...
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Category: Import & Export policies
Unholy politician-trader nexus – behind farmers plight
For several decades, production of pulses in India has fallen substantially short of consumption. The persistent deficit has led to intermittent bouts of spike in their prices as imports [needed to plug it] have often come after lag and failed to reach consumption points in time – courtesy, handling, storage and transportation bottlenecks. The import of pulses in large quantity also resulted in huge outgo of foreign exchange exacerbating balance of payment problems especially during times when the macro-economic fundamentals were weak [for instance, during early 90s and 2012-13/2013-14]. This also affected the ability of the government to remain glued to the path of fiscal consolidation. Pulses are an important source of nutrition especially for vegetarians and a critical component...
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