Category: Regulatory environment

To boost inter-mandi and inter-state trade in agricultural commodities, a high-level Expert Committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has recommended creation of specialized Market Yard of National Importance (MNI) which could complement e-NAM (electronic National Agriculture Market). It has proposed creation of MNIs for selected commodities in six states. According to the committee, “MNI could be construed as a specialized extension of e-NAM”. At the outset, it is important to understand what is e-NAM? What is it that e-NAM hasn’t been able to achieve? How can MNI make up and fill the void? Launched in April 2016, e-NAM is an online trading platform for agriculture produce aiming to help farmers, traders, and buyers with online trading and...

The hapless farmers must be liberated from the stranglehold of cartel licenced traders by giving them options to sell their produce wherever they want Union leaders may have called off farmers’ agitation in Haryana over Minimum Support Price (MSP) for sunflower seeds following the State government’s decision to agree to their demand. However, they maintain that their protest for securing legal guarantees for MSP across the country will continue. A legal guarantee for MSP was a major demand of the farmers mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh during the year-long protest in 2020/2021 over the three Central farm laws. That protest ended when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on November 19, 2021, the repeal of those laws. Do...

Farmers will continue to be in distress as long as they are shackled by the state APMC laws Reports of a farmer from Maharashtra’s Solapur getting a measly Rs 2.49 from the sale of 512 kg onions to a trader (for Rs 1 per kg on sale executed at the Solapur market yard, total sale value comes to Rs 512; after deducting labour, weighing, transportation and other charges adding to Rs 509.5, the net realization is Rs 2.49) in the district has led to all-round consternation. Rs 2.49 is the net revenue from the sale of the crop; it isn’t a profit. To arrive at it, we need to deduct from this the cost of producing 512 kg onions which...

When farmers get dozens of options to sell, plain common sense says that they are bound to get a good deal in every respect, including a good selling price While, staying the implementation of the three contentious farm laws, the Supreme Court (SC) had set up a Committee to recommend the way forward. The committee submitted its report on March 19, 2021. Even as the SC action on the report was pending, on November 19, 2021 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced repeal of the laws even while maintaining that these laws are beneficial to small and marginal farmers who are in a majority. Now, in a startling revelation, Anil Ghanwat, a member of the committee has revealed that around 85.7...

The arthiyas, large farmers and traders have successfully protected their turf while small farmers, who constitute the overwhelming majority, have lost On November 19, 2021, announcing his Government’s decision to repeal the contentious three farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized for not being able to convince a section of the farmers about the benefits that these laws would bring them. Are these laws so complex as to become incomprehensible to the farmer? The “Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India”, SAS in short, released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), covering the period July 2018 to June 2019, reveals widespread dissatisfaction among farmers with the price realized from sale of their...